Antica Terra, Aurata, Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2018

Chardonnay can be a monster. It has so much to give and, when grown in places where the sun actually shines, it can become overly tropical, flabby and dull. In an attempt to tame the beast, there is a tendency, these days, to let the vine set abundant fruit, harvest it while still green and keep the wine from wood. And while all of these things will certainly keep the wine from becoming too rich, it feels to us, like the wrong approach.

Antica Terra believes that Oregon, with its marginal climate giving rise to cool growing seasons and naturally elevated acid, may be one of the few places in the world where one can actually pursue intensity. They can farm for yields that allow for wind and wing between each cluster, let the fruit hang until the skins are golden, the seeds deeply brown, press, without moving the must, for ten, sometimes eighteen hours, and let the wines develop in barrel; the slow oxygenation through the staves serving to both amplify and refine its character over time.

Aurata is pure and precise, its deep vein of acid contributing to the impression of power, density and persistence.