Toad Hollow Vineyards

1996 Chardonnay, Francine’s Selection, Sonoma County 

Release Date: April 1, 1997
Harvest: September 28 - 30, 1996
Grapes: 100% Northern Coast Counties
Fermentation: Four weeks at 55º F in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, undergoing 100% malolactic fermentations (secondary fermentation)
Bottling Date: February 24 - 25, 1997
Alcohol: 12.5%
pH: 3.60
TA: 0.55 g/100 ml

Chardonnay, Chardonnay everywhere, and not a drop to drink. There is a shortage of good Chardonnay. You have noticed, we are sure.

The North Coast counties of California, where great Chardonnays can be grown, have had to endure three successive short crops of this highly desirable grape. The anomaly is that the smaller the crop, the better the quality -- so the more you love it, as you must -- and the more you drink it, as you do -- the less we have of it to irrigate your palates.

Of course there is Chardonnay, as there are plenty of Elvises on velour, but when you want to see a Renoir, they can get a bit pricey. Wine follows life.

Our 1996 Toad Hollow Chardonnay is very fine. It travels in its usual cloak of terms that by now are familiar to you: clean, crisp, beginning with a soft lactic roundness in the center and a long varietal finish that echoes again and again its elegant heritage.

We have had a long talk with the vines -- they sincerely promised more Chardonnay next year (and they tried mightily hard, but Mother Nature via the weather took its annual due) -- or is this just another anguished cry from the "ancient vintner" with an empty albatross around his neck?

The Toads of the Hollow

info@toadhollow.com