2014 Lucia, Chardonnay
Santa Lucia Highlands, California
With generations of farming history in Monterey County, and a commitment to making exceptional wines, The Pisoni
Family hand-crafts the Lucia wines from the Pisoni, Garys’ and Soberanes Vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands.
THE VINEYARD
Lucia Chardonnay is a blend between fruit from the Pisoni and Soberanes Vineyards. This wine is a wonderful representation of the cool climate Santa Lucia Highlands and these estate vineyards. The goal is to create a “world-class” appellation blend and barrels for this wine are hand selected, just as for the single-vineyard wines.
WINEMAKING
The Pisoni Family is committed to raising and hand-crafting exceptional wines. The limited-production Lucia wines are created using classic, gentle and thoughtful winemaking techniques. Hand-picked and sorted grapes are fermented on native yeasts and aged in carefully selected French oak barrels. Our state-of-the-art winemaking facility uses gravity flow as part of a custom design conceived to merge the estate vineyards and winery. This affords us complete control of the farming and winemaking process, ensuring consistently superior quality.
THE VINTAGE
The 2014 growing season in Monterey County was one of the driest on record. This was the third consecutive drought year, and continued lack of rainfall led to early season stress on the vines. The result was smaller canopies but very phenologically developed fruit. We made multiple, careful pruning passes through each of the vineyards, dropping large amounts of fruit to balance these smaller canopies with the crop levels. Winter and Spring were mild, which led to an early bud break. A cool summer slowed the growing season, and harvest began in the first weeks of September, much earlier than is typical for the AVA. The 2014 wines possess great elegance, vibrance, and intensity.
TASTING NOTES
The 2014 Lucia Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands, is vibrant gold in color with complex, pure, focused aromas of white peach, jasmine flower, flint, green mango and mandarin. A combination of eight low-yielding chardonnay clones (mostly “Old Wente” selections) brings great diversity and flavor to the cuvée. The wine is layered and full-bodied on the palate, while the high levels of natural acidity from the vintage impart great intensity and focus to the finish. A light sediment forms from this unfined and unfiltered wine. Enjoy now or cellar for several years.