2022 Lindquist Family Viognier-Chardonnay 50-50 Blend

This wine is 50% Viognier from the Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, and 50% Chardonnay from the Reeves Vineyard in the Edna Valley. Both sites are cool coastal influenced vineyards.

I’ve been making a wine from this blend of grapes since 1991. The idea is to combine ultra ripe Viognier, which gets wildly aromatic, with Chardonnay that’s picked at the low end of ripeness. This reigns the Viognier back in and gives it the structure, acidity and alcohol balance that the wine needs.

The two wines were fermented and aged separately in neutral French oak barrels for 6 months. The wine went through complete malo, but the sugar fermentation of the Viognier stuck at just slightly off-dry. The Chardonnay was completely dry and balanced the ever so slight sweetness of the finished wine.

This is a wine for drinking…delicious, juicy, full of fruit, with that wonderful aromatic of ripe Viognier…honey, peaches, lychee and jasmine! It’s bottled with a screw cap for easy access!

Cheers,

Bob Lindquist