Mitsuko's Vineyard Chardonnay
Carneros, Napa Valley

Clos Pegase Mitsuko's Vineyard Chardonnay


Wine Stats


Vintage: 2009
Variety: 100% Chardonnay
Vineyard: 100% Mitsuko's Vineyard (Carneros)
Soil: haire and diablo clay-loams
Harvest Date: September 29-October 16
Aging: 8 months in 34% new French oak, 66% neutral oak
Alcohol: 14.1%
T.A.: 6.10 g/L
pH: 3.50
Residual Sugar: 1.90 g/L
Bottled: August 2010
Cases: 11,800
Optimal Drinking: 2011-2016

Tasting Notes

Our 2009 Mitsuko's Vineyard Chardonnay is a wine of power and intensity, yet with refinement, grace and balance. Peach, nectarine and other stone fruit aromas marry with pear and New England apple notes, all complimented by hints of citrus zest and smoky oak, endowing the wine with great aromatic depth and intensity. A well balanced plush yet vibrant forepalate evolves in the mouth into lengthy and intense fruit flavors together with an opulent rich finish.

Vineyard & Vintage Notes

A fourth consecutive winter of low rainfall characterized the beginning of the 2009 growing season. Fortunately, spring frost events were reduced in severity and number compared with the previous year, although budbreak was similarly delayed. And, while cumulative rainfall was low overall, the atypically late timing of the precipitation delayed irrigation needs, while a warm spell in June helped curtail excessive canopy development. The remainder of the summer and early autumn was steadily warm and dry, without the frequency of heat events which have proven challenging in some past vintages. These ideal growing conditions led to optimal flowering, veraison and harvest, although the mildness of the year delayed timing of these critical events in the annual cycle of the vine.

Mitsuko's Vineyard, our 365 acre Estate vineyard located south of Highway 121 in the cooler part of Napa Carneros, has an abundance of ideal sites for Chardonnay. Since its purchase as bare land in 1989, we have continually refined our plantings to optimize the winegrape quality potential of each block by determining the best clones of Chardonnay to match each soil type. Thus, our Mitsuko's Vineyard Chardonnay blend continues to evolve towards greater heights every year. For the 2009 vintage, our heritage clones form the core of the blend at 61% - Wente for weight and acidity, Robert Young, Atlas Peak, Beresini and Clone 04 for tropical notes and Rued for lifted aromatics. Equally significant are the Dijon Clones which produce broad, rich, ripe and complex wine lots; these wines comprise 39% of the final blend this year.

Winemaking Notes

All of our Chardonnay was night harvested and delivered cold in the wee hours of the morning for immediate gentle and controlled whole cluster pressing, ensuring the highest quality grape juice possible. Juice with full solids was racked into barrels, and fermentation with natural yeast (giving us complexity in flavor and a sense of 'place' from the vineyard's indigenous yeast populations) or inoculated yeast proceeded slowly in our chilly cellar. After fermentation, the new wines were inoculated with a malolactic bacteria strain developed in Champagne which naturally deacidifies and stabilizes the wine without production of buttery flavors and aromas that can detract from our estate fruit personality. These wines were stirred frequently and aged sur lie (on yeast and grape solids) for 8 months without racking. In the summer of 2010, the wine was racked up to tank to prepare for bottling.

Previous Vintages