Under the Wire, "Chuy Vineyard,"  Chardonnay 2017, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain, North Coast, CA

One of only two vintages of Under the Wire’s sparkling from this vineyard, it has aromas of peach blossom and white flowers, balanced with a gunflint minerality. It’s rich and bold, with pure Chardonnay intensity.  

COUNTRY: USA

STATE: California

APPELLATION (AVA): Moon Mountain District

REGION: North Coast

SUBREGION: Sonoma County

VINEYARD: Chuy Vineyard

VINTAGE: 2017

GRAPES: 100% Chardonnay

SOIL: hardscrabble rock, volcanic, and grey shale.

PRACTICE: Dry-farmed sustainable

VINIFICATION: Only the nectar of free run juice with almost no additional squeezing goes into the finished wine. No dosage. Disgorged January 2021

METHOD: Traditional method (Champagne method)

STYLE: Sparkling

COLOR: Light lemon

BODY: Medium body

BUBBLES: Fine

TASTE: Dry

PRIMARY AROMAS: Peach blossom, white flowers, lemon

FLAVOR: Minerality, rich, deep, bold

FORMAT: 750ml

ALCOHOL: 12.5%

SERVICE AND SUGGESTION: Serve chilled. Pair with lemony seafood.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER: Under the Wire Wines

Under the Wire Wines is the project of Morgan Twain-Peterson and Chris Cottrell.

“Our simple yet unique premise is to make California sparkling wines based on an individual vineyard in an individual year. Inspired in part by the grower Champagne movement, we aim to prove that California can produce unique, delicious and terroir-driven sparkling wine.” (underthewirewines.com)

ABOUT THE VINEYARD: Chuy Vineyard

“Though we only got to work with Chuy Vineyard for two vintages, we couldn’t be happier that we got to capture the remarkable site in a bottle filled with bubbles.  Planted in the early 1970s by legendary Sonoma vineyard manager Chuy Ordaz, this vineyard captured both the great site but also a viticultural world where widely spaced, dry farmed vines were the norm rather than the exception. Chuy is ‘mountain’ Chardonnay as both its 1000’ elevation and intensity indicate. The Chardonnays from Mt Veeder can be so dense that sometimes it's as if your senses can almost be overloaded. We handle this aspect by making a more aggressive than normal press cut, ensuring that only the nectar of free run juice with almost no additional squeezing goes into the finished wine. This means we get a tiny amount of juice from the grapes, but the result is that the site's more nuanced flavors come through.” - Under the Wire Wines

ABOUT THE LABEL: The label was designed by David Lance Goines “...who designed Morgan’s dads label at Ravenswood back in the day along with some other notable labels like the Merry Edwards label. Mostly he is famous for his designs for Chez Panisse and his poster art. He was a wonderful human…I think he was one of the most important Bay Area artists of the last 50 years.” - Under the Wire Wines