The Golden Broom and Dustpan
I've been working at Monticello Vineyards my whole life. I started working for the winery during summers in high school, and with the exception of a brief time at Humboldt State University to pursue studies in Marine Biology, I've been working steadily at the winery since 1989. It's interesting to be able to see your workplace through your own 18 year old eyes, and also those same 48 year old eyes 30 years later.
DESTINATION & NAVIGATiON
Like every endeavour in life, there are usually multiple paths. The important thing is identifying the destination first. Navigation second. Our dad made it clear to me that if I was going to work in the winery, that my work started at the bottom. It wouldn't matter if I had a winemaking degree or not, my first job in the family business would be on the bottom rung. At the wise old age of 18, and with our dad's approval, I decided if I was going to start at the bottom either way, then I wanted to start right away. I chose my destination first ... I wanted to be the winemaker for my family's winery. We charted the navigation second.
A lot of my uncles on my mom's side worked in the trades in Scotland. This was largely an apprentice based learning system ... from Apprentice, to Journeyman, to Master Craftsman. It was appealing to me, and this system was the basis for how I approached learning how to make wine. I started working in the cellar at a young age, and took a lot of winemaking and viticulture classes to support the on-hands learning. To this day, our hierarchy in the cellar adheres to this structure. Including myself, every single member of the production team at Monticello has started at the bottom rung, and worked through every level to their current position.
THE GOLDEN BROOM & DUSTPAN
In my first days working in the cellar, I would observe our dad making his way slowly through the cellar, broom in one hand, dustpan in the other. He would sweep and pick up bits of trash to throw away. A gregarious man, he visited with people along the way. He was the president and founder of the company, generally dressed for business not cleaning, as he came from a generation that presented themselves that way. My young self couldn't understand why the president and founder was sweeping and picking up trash, certainly he had more important things to work on?
I never asked him why he spent his valuable time with a broom and dustpan, but over time it became clear that he wasn't really sweeping and cleaning up the winery. He was communicating ... slowly making his way through the winery, talking with everyone in the cellar, asking them about their work, their families, how they were doing. If they were having problems could he help? If the president and founder asked those questions, many employees would be tight-lipped. But in these exchanges, he was just Jay with a broom in his hand. Our dad was an outgoing, caring man, a really great guy. We've learned many lessons from him, both personal and professional. At a very young age, the lesson I learned from his broom and dustpan, was that our business was built on the shoulders of people.
VALUES
To this day, our written Values, from our Vision and Mission Statement, carry forward these simple, yet strong values that are symbolized by the broom and the dustpan.
PEOPLE are the foundation of our company. We strive to create an inclusive workplace, one in which mutual respect, collaboration and integrity are the driving principles.
RELATIONSHIPS are the strongest bonds which unite us. We strive to maintain respectful and authentic relationships, amongst ourselves and with our customers.
COMMUNITY is a space, in which we thrive when positively nurtured. We strive to create a positive and interactive workplace, and to engage in a positive manner with the community at large in all of our business functions.
INNOVATION AND QUALITY are motors of our forward progress. We strive to create an inspired workplace, one in which ideas and communication are paramount.
PERSISTENCE AND DETERMINATION are omnipotent in maintaining business momentum, in times of strength and weakness. We strive to create a secure workplace, one in which everyone is motivated to always press on.
Regarding the title of this post ...The Golden Broom and Dustpan'. In his later years, we presented our dad with a (painted) Golden Broom and Dustpan. They are symbols of our stated values. After some time, this broom and dustpan found their way back on to the cellar floor and were being used by staff that didn't realize their significance. I realized this recently and pulled them aside. Now slightly and appropriately tattered, we'll hang the Golden Broom and Dustpan up on the cellar wall as a lasting tribute to our Dear Ol' Dad, and to the values he instilled in us and our family business.
Comments (161)Message In a Bottle | The Best Wines are a Dialogue in Time
As a multi-generation winegrowing family in the Napa Valley, we've assembled a robust library of all of our wines over the last fifty years. Saving wine for many years is not easy ... it takes restraint and thoughtfulness, and requires a safe, cool space for the wines to age. Some of our older vintages have been sequestered away, unmoved, for decades in our warehouse. The bottles have collected that satisfyingly clean and pure dust, that is only accomplished with undisturbed time. While the exterior of these bottles can provide a prologue as to how the wine was stored, it is the wine itself that shares the intricate and intimate details of its journey through time.
In days past, a manuscript scrolled inside a bottle would travel thousands of miles across the seas, sharing a story of a distant place and perhaps a distant time. What a unique pleasure for the person finding the bottle to uncork it, and to read a story from a far away land! Likely it would have been in a different language, and from a different culture. Who knows how long it might take for that bottle to cross the seas, floating at the current's mercy. Perhaps much time would pass before the bottle made landfall, the message might be Nonetheless, it would have been enlightening for the discoverer.
As these bottles drift across the seas, their manuscripts inside would soften and yellow in the sun. As salt air inevitably ingressed through the cork, the paper would soften and the ink would run towards the ends. Under this physical softening, the underlying message would remain the same. It would have been a uniquely satisfying experience for the discoverer to come across one of these timeless messages in a bottle.
When we produce wines that we expect to age for decades, we are sending a message in a bottle. We bottle wines that are full of young ripe fruit, full midpalates and robust tannins. As these wines drift through the seas of time, they develop and mature. The ripe fruit develops with time, and takes on tertiary characteristics that can only be borne of time. As the air slowly ingresses through the cork, the midpalate rounds out, the finish lengthens, and the tannins soften to velvet.
Examples of these ageworthy wines are our CORLEY 'Single Vineyard' Cabernet Sauvignon. We produce five single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Tietjen Vineyard 'Rutherford', Yewell Vineyard in St, Helena, Monticello Vineyard and Knollwood Vineyard in Oak Knoll District, and the historic State Lane Vineyard in Yountville. Our CORLEY 'Reserve' Cabernet Sauvignon is an ageworthy blend from all of these classic vineyards.
We produced our first CORLEY 'Reserve' Cabernet Sauvignon in 1982. From that first vintage, this wine was designed to age for decades. Each year this wine is blended from our five vineyards across Napa Valley, and each year it represents our highest expression of winemaking in each given vintage.
To celebrate this New Year transition into 2020, we enjoyed a bottle of CORLEY 'Reserve' 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. As this wine has drifted through the seas of time over the last 20 years, this wine remains lively and showing strong signs of life still to go. On the nose, the wine shares subtle dark berry fruits, and a nice undercurrent of olive and herbs. The midpalate has rounded wonderfully, the wine is seamless across the transitions fromt he front of the palate to the finish. The once robust tannins are now like velvet on the palate. I remember this wine well from its youth. I recognize it now, like an old friend whose eyes you never forget.
If you're interested in finding some of our 'messages in a bottle', please follow the link to our library page at www.corleyfamilynapavalley.com/wine-shop/library-wines
Retrospective '10 Years' | State Lane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon | Vintage 2009
As we near the end of 2019, we're reminded of all the great wines we've tasted over the past year. It's fun to taste past vintages at selected time points on the vintage continuum. For example, in 2019, we've been enjoying wines from 2014 (5 years), 2009 (10 years), 2004 (15 years), and 1999 (20 years). Since we have jusr a few days left in this year, I'll write about a couple of these wines, and will plan to share more thoughts on the wines in this 5/10/15/20 cycle as be embark on a new vintage journey in 2020.
This special vineyard is on State Lane in the Yountville appellation. In 1982, we purchased 15 acres of the historic State Lane Vineyard from Beringer. For many years, the wines from this vineyard have been the foundation for our Corley 'Reserve' Cabernet Sauvignon, and also our Monticello 'Jefferson Cuvee' Cabernet Sauvignon. For many of those years, this vineyard as one of our largest blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, and produced wine of such depth and intensity that it has served us well as a primary building block for our most robust Cabernet Sauvignon offerings.
In 2004, we bottled the first 100% single vineyard offering from State Lane Vineyard. This small bottling was isolated from 6 barrels from this vineyard for that year. We continue to bottle these small single vineyard offerings, and Vintage 2019 will represent our sixteenth consecutive vintage of State Lane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. The bottlings have grown slightly, but remain very limited. Over 16 vintages, the bottlings have grown from just 6 barrels per vintage to 20 barrels per vintage.
State Lane Vineyard has long been one of my favorite vineyards for building blends. Its intensely dark color, rich tannin structure, and long finish makes it a perfect wine to build upon. The State Lane Vineyard provides the broad shoulders for other lots and varietals to stand upon. When selecting the barrels for a single vineyard offering, the parameters are a little different though. The Single Vineyard wine will be 100% from this vineyard. There is no blending, just barrel selection. We need to be thoughtful in selecting barrels that will provide us the right balance of depth, complexity, and intensity ... but also the right amount of resolve and smoothness on the palate. With the Corley 'State lane Vineyard' Cabernet Sauvignon, I expect these wines to age for 20+ years, so they can tend to be a little firm in their youth. The tannins mellow over time, and I find these wines from this vineyard really are in a magnificent plateau of sweet spot between years 5-15.
Last night, we enjoyed a bottle of the Corley Cabernet Sauvignon 'State Lane Vineyard', Vintage 2009. We paired it with a Filet Mignon and New York Strip. Both cuts were fantastic with the wine. At 10 years, the wine was still displaying much youth, and we cold see the early signs of maturity, particularly on the softening of the tannins in the midpalate and finish. The color reamins inky and dark, and on the nose the wine still has ample youthful aromas of blackberry, currant and hints of spice. On the palate, the wine has a wonderful balance of rich midpalate voluptuousness, framed by modest tannins that have aged very gracefully over the past ten years. The finish is long and lingering. This vineyard tends to shine brightly at ten years, and this bottle of 2009 was no exception.
If you're interested in learning more about our State Lane Vineyard, and our latest release of Vintage 2015, which received 95 points from Decanter magazine ... please visit us at www.corleyfamilynapavalley.com/product/-2015-State-Lane-Vineyard-Cabernet-Sauvignon
Dec 29, 2019 at 2:18 PM
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Forging Relationships in Wine : Asia
I just returned from a trip to Asia. I visited two countries, one of which we currently enjoy a wonderful following for our wines, and another which will be a new market for us in 2020. As is true for all of the markets that we sell in, great relationships really are the key to success. From our own perspective, we make really good wines and sell them at fair prices. I'll concede that, these days, there are a lot of wineries that make really good wines and sell them at fair prices. So what differentiates us from them? There are many factors, but for this post I'm going to focus on great relationships.
We've been selling wine in Taiwan for about 6 years. We enjoy a robust following for our wines, in particular our CORLEY Single Vineyard series Cabernet Sauvignon offerings, and our MONTICELLO Jefferson Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon. Our customers are very knowledgable about not only our wines, but also many other wines of Napa Valley. I've put a lot of energy into this market over the last 6 years. I visit a couple of times a year, and we present the MONTICELLO and CORLEY wines at wine dinners and tasting events. These events give me valuable facetime with our existing customers and introductions to new customers. Over the years, our customers become increasingly familiar with our various offerings and at this point, we are able to discuss more specific aspects of the wines, for example differences in vintages within our Single Vineyard series, or general underlying characteristics of the different vineyard offerings from sub-appellations, suchs Oak Knoll District, Yountville, Rutherford, and St. Helena.
More importantly than simply building our brand recognition, these dinners and events give us an opportunity to forge, develop and maintain great relationships, even if we are physically separated by 6000 miles of Pacific Ocean. It takes a considerable effort and time to travel this distance, and our customers appreciate that. From my perspective, the effort and time is an investment in the relationships with a high return. We have valuable shared experiences over time. Making great wines and selling them for fair prices is necessary, tablestakes really. Forging, developing and maintaining great relationships is as well.
While I've spent a lot of time in Taiwan over the last 6 years, I've just visited the Philippines for the first time. It was a brief trip to Manila to visit with some potential importers. I'm very excited about the opportunities, and am optimistic that we'll begin to distribute our wines in the Philippines in 2020. While there is a modest supply of Napa Valley wines in the Philippines now, there is currently more focus on European wines.
Our hosts, Chef Philip Golding and Donatella Chua put out a wonderful spread of charcuterie. Chef Philip prepared some fantastic meats on the fly, and guided us through some expert pairings with our wines at their ChefWorks headquarters in Manila. We had a great tasting, delicious pairings, and forged the beginnings of what I believe will be a wonderful and prosperous relationship.
Sharing our wines, and the history of our family winery with customers and friends is a great pleasure of mine. Doing so abroad is very invigorating as well. I love the learning experience, learning about new foods, and the resulting pairings that I was not previously aware of. I've learned that our CORLEY 'Reserve' Cabernet Sauvignon pairs well with the spicy side of the double-sided Taiwanese HotPot, and our MONTICELLO 'Jefferson Cuvee' Cabernet Sauvignon does well with the other side.
Any time we can teach and learn at the same time is a valuable opportunity in life, and these trips to Asia presenting our wines, and forging relationships, certainly provide ample opportunity for both.
Dec 11, 2019 at 10:52 PM
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The Best Rose in Napa Valley?
Around this time of year, we always get a little more excited about Rose. The sun is starting to shine, the weather is warming up, the afternoon breezes turn warm and comforting. The grass is green, mountains brown, the vines are starting to flower, and roses in bloom. The new Rose has been in bottle for a few months and is shining brightly, ready for the summer season. It’s a beautiful time of year!
We love drinking Rose. It’s refreshing, crisp, vibrant and full of life. It goes down easy on a warm summer day, and the lower alcohol doesn’t bog you down in the heat. Wonderful, alive! The fresh fruit aromas are easy to understand, and the wine invigorates the palate without much premeditation or afterthought.
It’s easy to enjoy a glass of rose, to just viscerally love the wine that you’re drinking … to put away a whole bottle at sunset before you even realize it, because the wine was so good, and the laughter so loud. It’s easy to enjoy a wonderful rose without too much thought.
And yet, even with all that thoughtless pleasure, we likely will still think about different roses. We might compare and contrast different producers, different styles, we might ask which is the best rose? I’ll posit that there is no such thing. No such thing as the best rose. There are many best roses. My best, your best, his best, her best? Best is suggestive. My best might be your better, and someone else’s good. It’s okay. There are so many aspects that contribute to your interest in a wine. Your relationship with the winery, with people at the winery, perhaps you had a wonderful memory associated with that wine that triggers happiness every time you drink it. Or maybe it just tastes good at the right time.
One thing that I believe is common to all the best roses would be that they are a blend of thoughtfulness and intention, regardless of varietal. Very generally, rose can be made in a couple of different ways …
SAIGNEE : A common method is to do ‘saignee’ with the ripe grapes. The term saignee means ‘to bleed’, and that’s basically what the winemaker does to the freshly crushed red grapes. As soon as the red grapes are crushed, the winemaker quickly ‘bleeds’ (or drains) out a portion of the juice. This juice generally has a light pink color from the short contact time with the skins. Because the grapes were likely picked at full ripeness, these types of rose are generally higher in alcohol, and have lower acidity. Simply put, they generally are not as fresh and vibrant as we prefer at Monticello.
EARLY WHOLE CLUSTER PRESS : Another technique is to pick early, while the sugars are still low, the natural acidity is high, the aromas and flavors are fresh, light and vibrant. These grapes can be crushed and bled, or whole cluster pressed, but the defining feature is the timing of the pick and the resulting vibrancy of the rose.
At Monticello, we employ both of these techniques. We dedicate a certain quantity of our Pinot Noir blocks for rose and thoughtfully and intentionally produce Estate Grown, Single Vineyard Rose of Pinot Noir ...
In early August, we pick some Pinot Noir around 19 brix from our estate vineyard. We whole cluster press these grapes, and the resulting juice has a faint salmon color, wonderfully vibrant acidity, and the precursors for all sorts of wonderful strawberry, raspberry, citrus and even slightly peppery aromas and flavors. This juice is fermented in neutral oak barrels, and the 20 brix (roughly 20% sugar) produces a light, crisp wine of about 11.5% alcohol.
In early September, we pick more Pinot Noir for Rose. This time around 24 brix, when the grapes have darker skins, deeper texture, more sugar, lower acid and riper tannins. These grapes are sorted, crushed, then bled (saignee). This juice is a little darker in color, and has darker berry aromas, purple fruits, hints of cola, and more texture on the palate. It is rounder and more full.
My preference is in the middle of these two, which is how we arrived at this dual picking technique for our rose. This is an example of 1 + 1 = 3, which is always the goal when blending, or combining lots. You might ask, why not just split the difference, and pick once in mid-September, rather than go through twice? Simply put, it’s not a game of averages. I’m looking for aromas and flavors that are specific to those two points in time. Those specific aromas and flavors don’t exist in the middle. By picking the grapes at those two points in time, then blending them together, we capture those essences that don’t exist in the middle.
I’ve been so happy with the results, we’ve extended trials of the dual picking technique to some of our other still wines in 2018, namely Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. So far, I’m very pleased with the results.
Enjoying rose without thinking about it too much is fun. Making rose thoughtfully and intentionally is fun too. Again, we avoid the middle. This is our best rose. We hope it can be yours too.
If you’re interested to taste our Monticello Vineyards ‘Estate Grown’ 2018 Rose of Pinot Noir, or any of our other wonderful summer sipping wines … please come visit us at the winery, or visit us at /product/2017-Ros--of-Pinot-Noir-Copy. You can also call us at (707) 253-2802.
Thank you,
Chris Corley, Winemaker
Napa Valley Pinot Noir that Ages Well? Absolutely!
Each month, I hold a Winemaker's Workshop with our Hospitality Team. These tasting and discussion sessions are valuable for everyone involved. It's a monthly opportunity for us to share information about our wines and the purpose and stories behind each wine. I've found that I learn by teaching, and because we promote these sessions as open dialogues, we tend towards transparent discussions of our winegrowing and winemaking activities. Sharing the stories behind the wines is important, because it gives the hospitality team deeper and broader insight into the wines, which they can then share with our guests.
Last month, our Winemaker's Workshop focus was on our Estate Grown Pinot Noir. Whenever we talk about our Estate Grown Pinot Noirs, an early question is ‘Why are you growing Pinot Noir in Napa Valley? Isn’t that Cabernet Sauvignon country?’ This is a good question … Napa Valley has grown to be synonymous with Cabernet Sauvignon. While that’s easy to see in 2019, our dad came here almost 50 years ago, and what lured him to Napa Valley was the desire to grow world class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Pinot Noir will always be dear to us. It’s the varietal that brought us to Napa Valley 50 years ago, and as a family, we are fiercely loyal, even with our grapes!
By definition, all of our Pinot Noir offerings are single vineyard wines, meaning all of the grapes in the blend were grown on a single vineyard. Of our five vineyards spanning the length of Napa Valley, we grow our Pinot Noir on the Monticello Vineyard, located in the cooler, southern end of the valley, in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. The daily breezes that come in from San Pablo Bay are critical for us to maintain the necessary acidity to make a world class Pinot Noir. (More on our Oak Knoll District weather patterns in an upcoming post!). On the Monticello Vineyard, we grow three different clones of Pinot Noir in two separate blocks. Each of these clones has subtle differences in aroma, flavor, and texture which we take into consideration in making and blending these wines. The two different blocks have soil and slight slope differences which ultimately impact the nuances of the final wines.
In our recent Winemaker’s Workshop, we tasted through about 8 different barrel samples of 2018 Pinot Noir which represented different combinations of blocks and clones. For example, the ‘Block 2, Clone 777’ tends towards a fuller-bodied style, with notes of strawberry, blackberry and cola. The ‘Block 3, Clone 113’ is a little more elegant in style, with notes of raspberry and blueberry. These nuances are fascinating to explore, and make the barrel selection and blending process so enjoyable. The 2018 Pinot Noir samples are so vibrant right now, so full of life, vim and vigor! The color of the wines is electric, and they have an energy that is just bursting from the glass. The wines are like genies released from the barrels. I’m very excited about Vintage 2018 Pinot Noir, and I anticipate that these wines will age gracefully for 10-12 years after bottling.
‘Wait! Did he just say that their Napa Valley Pinot Noir will age gracefully for 10-12 years?’ Absolutely! It has a lot do with our location, and being able to maintain the acidity in the grapes. We also tend towards a little more extraction with our Pinot Noir, so the wines have a slightly fuller character in their youth, but with this comes the substance to age long enough to develop those wonderful tertiary characteristics that only be created with time.
After our Winemaker’s Workshop, we opened a bottle of our Monticello Vineyards ‘Estate Grown’ 2009 Pinot Noir. This single vineyard wine is a blend of two blocks and four clones. (In 2009, we were growing four clones … 777, 667, 113, 115). The color of the wine was excellent, with hues of light purple, magenta, just lightly fading on the edges, but still fresh and robust. The wine had primary notes of slightly fresh, slightly dried berries, strawberries, raspberry. Secondary notes of clove, cola, nutmeg, cinnamon. As the wine opened up in the glass with some airtime, we found underlying tertiary notes of mushroom and earth. On the palate the wine is smooth as silk, and still has several years of life left.
If you’re interested to taste our Monticello Vineyards ‘Estate Grown’ 2009 Pinot Noir, or any of our extensive collection of library wines … please come visit us at the winery, or visit us at www.CorleyFamilyNapaValley.com/Wine-Shop/Library-Wines. You can also call us at (707) 253-2802.
Thank you,
Chris Corley, Winemaker
May 24, 2019 at 4:26 AM
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The Top Four Reasons To Join A Wine Club
Joining a winery's wine club can sometimes take some thought. Other times, not so much. You might want to evaluate the different options the winery has provided to you. If the winery makes a lot of different wines, they might be able to provide you a lot of different club options. Depending on your perspective, lots of options will either strike you as thrilling or overwhelming.
Here are four top reasons you can keep in mind when deciding if you want to join a winery's wine club ...
THE WINE
This seems so obvious, but it has to be at the top of the list Of course, you must like the winery's wines because you're going to be drinking a fair bit of them. You should consider whether the winery provides a wide range of styles that will keep you engaged over time. Do they make both reds and whites? Multiple varietals? Do they have big, ageworthy reds, but also more moderate fruit-forward offerings? Perhaps they make a crisp rose that you can enjoy in the summertime? Sparkling wine for the holidays? Full Disclosure : Monticello makes all these types of wines.
THE PEOPLE
Many wineries encourage their club members to come to the winery, to enjoy everything that the winery has to offer, in addition to the wines. This means you might be spending time with many of the hospitality staff, production staff, or perhaps the family. If you're first visit was to the winery, you likely knew right away how the people made you feel. If you're considering signing up from a distance, you might want to spend some time on their website, or call in and have a conversation with a hospitality team member to get a feel for the tone of the winery. Full Disclosure : Monticello's got a great team with many years of collective experience and warm smiles.
ACCESS
Joining a wine club can also give you access to great library and small-production wines that the general public doesn't even know about. These wines are usually very high quality, and because of their small production size, can sometimes give unique insights into the winemaking, farming and history of the winery. Estate-grown, single-block, or single-clone bottlings of different varietals would be an example of these types of limited access wines. Full Disclosure : Monticello enthusiastically produces small-batch wines like this for club members.
EVENTS
One of the most enjoyable aspects of being part of the wine club, is actually being part of a club! Typically this means having a special place, or room, at the winery that you and your guests can access. Or being able to attend the club events, which are generally lots of fun. These could include lobster boils, paella, themed dinners, croquet tournaments, etc ... You'll want to determine if the club events appeal to you. Full Disclosure : Monticello loves throwing a Spring and Harvest event for our members each year!
Hopefully you find wine clubs that appeal to you. For more information about our Monticello Wine Clubs, please visit our website at www.corleyfamilynapavalley.com/wine-club
The Single Most Important Thing About Tasting Wine
All of our enthusiastic fans and supporters of our MONTICELLO and CORLEY wines intuitively understand the single most important thing about tasting and enjoying wine.
They know what they like, and what they don't like. Everything beyond that first intuitive questions is just a variation of 'Why?'
Most everyone can quickly and intuitively determine whether or not they like music when they hear it. Many of those same people don't have a deep understanding of musical theory, or whether the song is composed in 4/4 or 7/8 time, or if the primary chords are minor or major, or if it's being played in the key of E, A or C. They just feel, they know if they like it or not.
In an instant, you'll know whether the music of bagpipes is inspiring to you and makes you want to don a kilt, paint your face and charge down a mountainside into battle ... or its a wail that makes you want to run and hide in a highland cave. The first question is answered intuitively ... Do I like it or not? How does it make me feel? ... You don't need to understand how the bagpipes work, when or why they were invented or how they are used in battle or ceremony.
You'll know intuitively whether or not the sounds of distorted heavy metal guitar, conga drums, mandolins or pan flutes appeal to you without understanding anything about the instruments or how they are played. You'll know whether you prefer the rhythm of Metallica or Mozart, without needing to understand the technical complexities of the compositions.
It's the same with wine. You'll know intuitively whether or not you like a wine when you first taste it. You don't need to understand the dynamics of yeast fermentation, the soil composition of a vineyard block, or whether the wine was aged in French oak for 22 months or 28 months to determine if you like the wine. That information answers the questions 'why?'.
Do I like it? How does it make me feel? This is intuitive, primary, tangible and visceral. Deeper levels of understanding can generate deeper levels of enjoyment ... enhanced, enlightened and intellectual ... they come from all of the secondary and teritary 'whys?'.
On a primary level, every one of us is qualified to answer the visceral questions ... Do I like it? How does it make me feel?
We hope that you enjoy our MONTICELLO and CORLEY wines, and that we'll have opportunities to help you answer the 'Whys?'
The Yewell Vineyard
Mar 11, 2019 at 11:28 AM
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14 Rows, 8 Hours, 6 Barrels | CORLEY Chardonnay 2017 'Block 3, Clone 95'
There are fourteen rows of grapevines on the southernmost side of Block 3 in The Monticello Vineyard. Originally planted about 20 years ago, these Pinot Noir vines were a primary component in our Monticello ‘Estate Grown’ Pinot Noir bottlings for many years. Specifically, they were a sub-designation of Pinot Noir known as Clone 115. Over the years, we always enjoyed the slightly darker berry aromas and flavors and fuller body that the wines displayed from these grapes.
As these things tend to do over decades, our vineyard blocks have evolved. With additional Pinot Noir planted in another block, we set our eyes on the aforementioned fourteen rows as a nice location for a wonderful new source of Chardonnay. Rather than tear out our beloved Pinot Noir vines for replanting, we chose to keep them in service. We cut the trunks and grafted the new Chardonnay Clone 95 onto the Pinot Noir trunks.
Grafting is a fairly straightforward viticultural technique, employed when the grower is interested in a varietal shift with minimal downtime. It requires a skilled grafter, and good seasonal timing. When done properly there is a high percentage of success.
Perhaps straightforward, and with a high rate of success, it is nonetheless really amazing. I walk through these fourteen rows regularly. I spend enough time in these vines, I should be jaded to this kind of stuff, but I’m not. I still find it incredible.
In these fourteen rows, we have vines that are themselves a mélange of plant material. The rootstocks in the ground are of American origin, so that they can resist the natural soil pests. The trunks are French, Pinot Noir Clone 115. The top of the vine, bearing the fruit, is now Chardonnay Clone 95.
Over time, these three plants have coalesced, they are now one. It takes a seasoned eye to see the graft unions. While the graft unions may be difficult to see, the quality of the wine is easy to understand.
Chardonnay Clone 95 has long been one of our favorites. We grew this clone in Block 6 towards the back of the property for years. It was an easy choice for these fourteen rows in Block 3. We love the rich texture that is counterbalanced with fresh acidity. We love the tropical fruit character that is framed with nuances of citrus tones.
This month, we’re excited to be releasing our CORLEY 2017 Chardonnay ‘Block 3, Clone 95’. This wine is made entirely from these fourteen rows of vines. From this batch, we selected six specific barrels for the final bottling that we felt best represented this special section. The grapes were crushed and soaked on the skins for eight hours prior to pressing into barrels for fermentation. The skin soak is an old-school nod to our winemaking techniques that were in place in 1990 when I started working in the cellar. Soaking the skins helps us to extract more aromas, flavors and textures prior to pressing the juice for fermentation. Fermented and aged in barrels for 10 months prior to bottling, we’re very excited to be releasing and sharing this wine with you.
This wine has wonderful and expressive aromas of tropical fruits like mango, melon and fig. These are balanced with light citrus tones. There is a light creaminess and a hint of butterscotch from the French oak barrels and partial malolactic fermentation. On the palate the wine is rich, with a light beam of fesh acidity.
Chris Corley, Proprietor | Winemaker
Mar 8, 2019 at 9:30 AM
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