This
Mendocino Chardonnay shares many similarities with our
Première Reserve bottling: both are 100% Chardonnay, the grapes for both were destemmed, pressed and then fermented and, in both cases, the wine aged in Billon's French oak barrels. Yet the wines are strikingly different. Navarro's intent with the
Première Reserve is to produce a complex wine that reveals the terroir of our Philo vineyards, so traditional winemaking is employed. Fermentation is completed in
newer barrels and the wine ages on the lees (spent yeast). This
Mendocino bottling has a more straightforward goal - a crisp, fruit-driven Chardonnay, easy-to-drink and refreshing.
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Jim Klein, at the vineyard next door, discussing the Chardonnay crop with a Valley Foothills' tractor driver. We're neighbors of Marge and Gil Ordway, who own Valley Foothills, and we have made wine from their grapes continually since 1978. Each year the wine from their vines is a major portion of our Mendocino
Chardonnay.
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Aging wine in oak barrels for ten months helps clarify the wine naturally. For Navarro's Mendocino Chardonnay we selected seasoned French barrels whose oak flavors have diminished due to prior use. 