Whitcraft - 'SMV Tinaquaic Vineyard Old Vine Dry Farmed' - Chardonnay - Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara County, CA - 2023

@whitcraftwinerydrakewhitcraft, drakewhitcraft

Notes from the Winery/Importer

Organic, dry farmed old vine Chardonnay planted in loamy sand. 18 months in Neutral Puncheon, unfined & unfiltered, never pupmed

Notes on the Producer

When Drake Whitcraft took over the family winery in 2007 (the winery was founded two decades before, in 1985 by his parents, Chris and Kathleen) his goal was to make balanced Central Coast wine of purity, honesty, and finesse. Because he grew up within the culture of wine and California winemaking, he was perpetually under the tutelage of both father Chris and friend Burt Williams, founder of the legendary Williams-Selyem winery in Sonoma. During a two year stint in Australia working at Green Vineyards with first-generation Italo-Australian and biodynamic guru Sergio Carlei, he got a good taste of certain practices he wanted to implement, not only in the vineyard and winery but also on the business side. Now Drake is vinifying with the same old school techniques his dad used (hand-harvesting, foot-pressing etc, no added enzymes or coloration) and with much veneration to Mother Nature herself. His vineyards all use organic and/or biodynamic practices to produce Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel, Gamay, Trousseau, and Grenache of distinction; he does not de-stem or add water. Drake has chosen to inoculate only with the Williams Selyem strain, a yeast native to the Jackass Hill portion of Lino Martinelli’s Zinfandel vineyard on the Russian River. “It’s a super yeast,” he says “guaranteed to ferment.” Whole cluster fermentation is never subject to pump over and the wines are not racked off the lees. He hand fills and hand corks each bottle. The wine receives just enough SO2 to stabilize it, and the production is super small. It's the only inoculation we allow for still wines at Satellite... in that it's really a wild yeast strain identified and used as part of a natural process. The resulting wines are clean and impeccably balanced. They represent a cross section of the emerging class of site-specific wines coming out of Central Coast California today.

Grapes & Style

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is one of the great white grapes of Burgundy, and one of the most widely planted wine grapes in the world. It has a long history in eastern France, especially Burgundy and Champagne, and DNA work shows it as part of the same broad Pinot and Gouais Blanc family that gave us grapes like Gamay and Aligoté. It’s adaptable, easy enough to grow in many places, and capable of producing everything from simple everyday whites to some of the most ageworthy white wines in the world.

In the vineyard, Chardonnay buds and ripens relatively early, which makes it useful in cooler climates but vulnerable to spring frost. It tends to do especially well on limestone and calcareous clay, and its relatively neutral fruit profile gives site and cellar choices a lot of room to show. Malolactic fermentation, lees aging, barrel fermentation, and oak can all shape the final wine dramatically.

In the glass, Chardonnay can be lean, saline, and citrus-driven, or broad, textured, and orchard-fruited, depending on where it’s grown and how it’s made. Chablis shows the steely, high-acid side; the Côte de Beaune shows depth, texture, and savory complexity; Champagne shows its value as a sparkling-wine base. Good Chardonnay is less about one fixed flavor than about balance, texture, and the way it carries place.