Tate Wine - Iron Rooster Vineyard - Chardonnay Napa 2024

Ageing

11 months in French Oak Barrels , 1 new and 3 one-to-three-year-old.

Harvest date

October 1st, 2024.

Production

Total 4 Barrels.

Tasting Notes

There is a beautiful light gold hue to the 2024 Iron Rooster Chardonnay. Bright bosc pear and honeycomb jump out of the glass followed by jasmine and quince. It has very fresh and lifted aromatics. Although lighter in color for a Chardonnay there is some nice viscosity to the wine. The palate echoes the nose, particularly with the jasmine spice and stone fruit. There is a beautiful crispness to the finish due to the lighter amount of malolactic fermentation. This is lively wine in its youth but will develop wonderfully over the next 8-9 years (2033-2034).

Vineyard

Napa Valley, Oak Knoll District, Iron Rooster Vineyard.

Vintage Notes

Following the coldest growing season that we have ever had, 2023, we entered our warmest on record in 2024. It was a warm spring and summer, however in the last part of September and beginning of October there was over a week exceeding 100ÂºF. The Iron Rooster Vineyard Chardonnay is located in the heart of Oak Knoll. This part of Napa Valley has long foggy mornings and cooler evenings which protected us through the heat of the ripening season. The cooler weather there also allows us to hang longer for better flavor development.

Winemaker Notes

Very early in the morning this fruit was gently guided to the press, then whole cluster pressed. The wine is then directly put into barrel to ferment, maintaining heavy lees, with only one of the three barrels being new oak. The lees were stirred weekly. Each barrel is allowed to go through partial malolactic; each barrelâ€™s malo conversion is stopped individually when the wine is balanced. In 2024 we allowed 41% of the malic acid to convert to lactic. After 11 months, the wine was racked off the heavy sediment and bottled.

USA California Napa Valley Oak Knoll AVA