Florèz - 'Star Drops' - Chardonnay - Santa Cruz Mountains, CA - 2024

@florezwines

Notes on the Producer

Here at florèz wines we embrace old world technique and sensibility. Everything begins with the vineyards and the best quality starting ingredients. Some of the vineyards we are farming ourselves using organic practices, and dry farming management. To supplement we source fruit from organically farmed vineyards. We work to stay as local as possible to the Santa Cruz area. We follow through with astute craftsmanship utilizing native yeasts, eschewing additives, racking well but never filtering, and a carefully monitored élevage without sulfur and sur lie. Always in pursuit of improvement we hope to deliver wines of pleasure and ease on the body Florèz wines was founded by James Jelks in 2017. Born in Santa Cruz and raised in Davis California Jelks is a west coast kid. After a decade of wine fascination, attending the UC Davis E&V program, and working worldwide Jelks set his sights on producing wines in Santa Cruz county.

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.