The Enchantress
Chardonnay · Yakima Valley 03 / 15 $35
Old vines. Barely any oak.
Forty-year-old Chardonnay, restrained and all tension.
Freshly picked green apple, Meyer lemon, ripe pear, and flinty minerality; gorgeously ripe yet energetic.
Grapes
Old-vine Chardonnay
100% Chardonnay off 40+ year old vines: concentration, with Meyer lemon, green apple, apricot, and wet stone.
Terroir
French Creek Vineyard
Planted in 1980 on a south slope of wind-blown loess and caliche over fractured basalt, in the southeast Yakima Valley. Those poor, well-drained soils and 40-year-old vines hold yields down, for wet-stone minerality and real tension.
Region
Yakima Valley
A cooler corner of the Columbia Valley that keeps these old vines fresh and mineral.
Winemaking
Restraint over richness
Aged 10 months on the lees in mostly neutral French oak, building mouthfeel and weight; elegant and age-worthy.
What it is
Why it matters
Why it's cool
The Enchantress Chardonnay Composition100% old-vine Chardonnay
AVA(s)Yakima Valley
VineyardsFrench Creek
Oak / aging10 months on the lees, mostly neutral French oak
Alc13.1%
Scores 2024 IWR 93