Frog's Leap Chardonnay 'Shale and Stone' (2019)

The combination of a very successful vintage, the deep fractured soils of the Truchard
vineyard, a short barrel fermentation followed by extended sur lie aging has once
again produced a remarkable Chardonnay in the unique Frog’s Leap style. Subtle but
distinct white peach combined with lightly toasted hazelnuts define the aromas. But it
really is the crisp, perfectly balanced, and bone-dry flavors that make the wine. The
only problem with serving it with a perfectly baked quiche Lorraine is that too much
of the bottle is empty by the time the quiche comes out of the oven! JW

The 2019 Chardonnay was harvested in eight separate picks between September 17th
and October 1st, as different sections of the vineyard reached full ripeness. All lots
were added to the press whole cluster, with the first five lots seeing a couple hours of
skin contact in the press. After cold settling, the juice was allowed to start fermenting
with native yeast, then immediately racked to brand-new French oak barrels, where
they spent their most active phase of fermentation, typically 4-6 days. As each lot
began to slow down, all wine was racked to a single stainless steel lined concrete tank,
where primary fermentation finished over the next several weeks. No lees stirring
occurred, and no sulfur was added to the tank until the following summer, with the
wine finishing a natural malolactic fermentation over the winter. RW

The vines are organically farmed, planted 1979 in fractured shale and sandstone.