Taking one for the team 2006 Arcadian Chardonnay Dierberg Vineyard

[CFu]

• 2006 Arcadian Chardonnay Dierberg Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley (9/3/2009)
  opened for 3 hours. Citrus and butter on the nose with a touch of heat and lemongrass. Opulent , silky, and big bodied with some oak and intense lemon flavors. Nice zesty acidity on the finish of lemon rinds and granny smith apples. A bit bigger than I expect from Arcadian after the glorious 05 Sleepy Hollow… but I think this is more a product of the vineyard and its natural ripeness. (90 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[jeffz]

Thanks. Nice to see these notes. Pouring this one at my bar this weekend.

Anyone know why Joe has released some of the the 06’s so quickly? Normally he holds onto them for a while before letting them go. Guesses: he thinks they are early drinkers? Or he is holding other vintages and prefers to release these 06’s first? Larger production on the 06’s? Thoughts?

[CFu]

@jeffz

Thanks. Nice to see these notes. Pouring this one at my bar this weekend.

Anyone know why Joe has released some of the the 06’s so quickly? Normally he holds onto them for a while before letting them go. Guesses: he thinks they are early drinkers? Or he is holding other vintages and prefers to release these 06’s first? Larger production on the 06’s? Thoughts?

he had an early release program for club members where you could buy it at a discount if you took it earlier… opposed to him holding it for the year. I am irresponsible and drinking the 06’s earlier than I should . But dunno about the rest of the distribution

[Kimberly_Cabot]

My parents are also in this club, and love it. My mom and I were heading out to Daisy Mint in Pasadena, really good food if you haven’t been there, and she asked me to grab a white out of their cellar. So, I grabbed the first white I saw which happened to be this very Arcadian Chard. We loved every sip , it just kept opening up and giving and went very well with the full flavored Asian food. My dad was bummed when he noticed it was missing as he was trying to follow Joe’s advice and age it, woops!

[Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m]

Thanks for the note, Charlie. It sounds tasty!

[CFu]

@Kimberly Cabot

My parents are also in this club, and love it. My mom and I were heading out to Daisy Mint in Pasadena, really good food if you haven’t been there, and she asked me to grab a white out of their cellar. So, I grabbed the first white I saw which happened to be this very Arcadian Chard. We loved every sip , it just kept opening up and giving and went very well with the full flavored Asian food. My dad was bummed when he noticed it was missing as he was trying to follow Joe’s advice and age it, woops!

what a coincidence, we had Asian food as well! (south Asia… Sri Lankan)

[Cris_Whetstone]

I thought this was leaner than the Sleepy Hollows have been. Almost a bit of a bite on the finish. It changed a lot from opening until an hour later also. I was expecting more ripeness from this vineyard though so maybe Joe had them move up the pick date.

[Russ_Williams]

@jeffz

Anyone know why Joe has released some of the the 06’s so quickly? Normally he holds onto them for a while before letting them go. Guesses: he thinks they are early drinkers? Or he is holding other vintages and prefers to release these 06’s first? Larger production on the 06’s? Thoughts?

Joe has decided to change his business model and not let the wines age as long in bottle before releasing them. He has decided to let his customers be responsible for aging the wines. I believe the plan is to ultimately release vintages 2 years after vintage date rather than 3 years. I think the '08s will be the first wines on this new release schedule since it will take several vintages to ‘catch up’. Joe and I discussed this several years ago so forgive me if I mistated something.