Winemaker Notes
Nuthouse Chardonnay has what we refer to as an International Palate that denotes a kinship with styles of Chardonnay that are well known in Burgundy. It is full malolactic and 100% barrel fermented, yet tastes more acid-driven like it spent time in stainless steel.
Food Pairing Notes
Argyle was the first US winery to commercially plant Dijon Clones that took to Oregon right away, due to similar climates of Oregon and Burgundy. Our First Nuthouse Chardonnay appeared in 1992 and is still alive and aging in the Argyle Library.
Vineyard Notes
We could say that “Mother Nature made the wines in the 2012 Vintage. Bloom and fruit-set traveled from normal to well below normal. Cold weather and some negative effects from hail drove yields generally down. But, that can be a GOOD thing as smaller clusters and good dry weather leads to ripe fruit.
The key challenge to the successful farmer this year was the fact that the period of July through October was the driest since record keeping began in the late 1800’s. Potential desiccation was further exacerbated by very dry, east winds coming out of Eastern Oregon & Washington’s high desert. This wind period was the longest in memory in Argyle’s 27 years of Oregon winemaking. Vines already starved for moisture will not fare well under these late fall conditions.
For us, a balanced crop and belief in the weather forecast, caused us to give our vines a nice drink of water just before the east wind event. This allows the vines to continue to photosynthesize and for the berries to stay plump and fruity. At Argyle, we were allowed to pick fruit under lovely fall sunshine at a leisurely pace with perfectly ‘dialed-in’ maturity, excellent ripeness & fresh natural acidity.
