Napa, California, USA
100% Chardonnay
Fermented in stainless steel and aged in neutral wood (a nod to the masters, Dauvissat and Raveneau).
Watson Ranch is a vineyard perched on a steep hillside overlooking the San Pablo Bay at the southernmost end of the Napa Valley. The ranch was names after the early Napa attorney, Augustus Watson, who owned the property in the early 1900s. The adjacent property is an abandoned limestone quarry which historically employed over 300 people, mining material to make portland cement used to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Exposed and unprotected from the elements, this wind-whipped site was planted in 1993 by the talented Napa Valley veteran grower Salvador Ramos. Soils at Watson Ranch are composed of calcareous clay over limestone. This soil type is extremely rare on the North Coast but shows itself in a narrow fin at the tail end of the Vaca Mountains in Southern Napa County. This fractured, well-drained calcareous soil, coupled with organic farming and cool windy conditions, imbue this parcel with great potential to produce world-class Chardonnay. The resulting wine from this vineyard is consistently textural and vibrant with underpinnings of ample natural acidity and salinity.
Arnot Roberts is one Californias leading producers. The project began in 2001, headed up by Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts are two dynamic, young winemakers in California, leading the way of site specific wines with balance and integrity. The produce a selection of wines from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Trousseau and Gamay, as well as some small batch wines made with varietals such as Ribolla Gialla and Zinfandel.
Winemaking here is a meeting point of tradition and innovation. All the wines are fermented with wild yeasts, little or no new wood and whole bunch inclusion for the red wines.