2023 Lucidité WV Chardonnay

I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so.

A Story: Oregon Chardonnay is wild. Start with the right material in the right place, treat it thoughtfully, nudge it ever-less, this way and that, for a couple decades and it’s still going to surprise.

The Cliff Notes: The color is greenish-yellow, perhaps epitomized by brass. The nose gives up ginger, golden delicious apple, ripe lemon and pea shoot. The attack falls brighter on acid and plays more savory than expected. The palate proceeds on lemon, apple, sake or sushi rice, then Asian pear and slight vanilla bean. There is a weight, cut through by acid, that demands food. I would like to go sit at a sushi bar, stat!

The Vintage: 2023 was a good growing year with fairly early bud-break, generally dry weather and reasonably moderate temperatures with only one four-day run above 100 degrees. An inch of rain two weeks before harvest balanced chemistries followed by a rather medium-yielding and truncated harvest during the second week of September.

The Building of: The grapes were whole cluster pressed at the lighter end of the spectrum, then wild-yeast barrel fermented in French Oak for a year (one new 500L puncheon, one once filled, seven older), before resting on light lees in stainless, prior to bottling, unfiltered,in February 2026.

Ageability: Expect a five- to seven-year horizon.

Vineyards: Temperance Hill Vineyard sits like an old European Crown at the top of the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Our St. Dolores Estate sits equally high on a hilltop in the Chehalem Mtns AVA. Both are certified organic and dry-farmed, they deliver ripe yellow fruit bolstered by crisp linear acid.
 

— Jim Prosser, owner/winemaker