Spring 2008 Newsletter

Chablis remains one of the great white wines of the world...

There is a unique streak of steely acidity, a firm flintiness

and a mineral quality that is not found elsewhere in Burgundy.

Like all great white burgundy, it benefits from but all too rarely

receives bottle ageing. A premier cru will be at its best

at 10 years, while a grand cru could easily benefit from

15 or more years of maturation.

Jancis Robinson, The Oxford Companion to Wine

Dear Friends:

We have always felt an affinity for the wines of Chablis, the northernmost district of Burgundy, and to this day they remain the inspiration for our own Stony Hill Chardonnay.  Jancis Robinson captures it all when she focuses on acidity, minerality and flintiness, the qualities which have distinguished Chablis from other white Burgundies over the years, and similarly, set Stony Hill apart from other California Chardonnays.  To us these qualities are Stony Hill in a nutshell, and we would only add flavors of apple, pear and citrus to the list. 

Fred and Eleanor McCrea planted Chardonnay in the late 1940s as an experiment, not knowing how the totally different climate and geography of the Napa Valley would influence these Burgundian grapes.  As they evaluated their first vintage in 1952 it became clear that Stony Hill’s rocky soils, its northeastern exposure and dry-farming methods were hospitable to this grape, and from the beginning came intensely flavored clusters of small berries.  Add to that winery practices such as minimal oak contact and absence of malolactic fermentation and you had a very Chablis-like style of Chardonnay evolving, which set our standard for the next fifty years.  But the single most important factor linking Stony Hill to the mother country, we think, was the flavor profile of the original budwood.

It’s impossible to trace Stony Hill’s original budwood to a specific French vineyard, but we do know that it came to us from the Wente Chardonnay vineyards in California’s Livermore Valley and that those vineyards were started at the turn of the twentieth century with budwood from the experimental vineyards at the University of Montpellier. Eleanor related the story many times about how she and Fred back in 1947 appealed to Mr. Wente to help them get started growing grapes.   He graciously escorted them into his vineyards and invited them to cut as much budwood as they liked.  We remember Eleanor saying that she and Fred were as green as two peas in a pod but went ahead and cut lengths of cane from what they judged to be the most vigorous and healthy vines and brought them back to the Napa Valley.  And thus, from Mr. Wente’s willingness to share, the Chardonnay vineyards at Stony Hill were born.

Our vines today are probably five generations removed from the original French budwood, due to replanting every couple of decades.  But by propagating with cuttings from our healthiest stock, the new vines carry the identical genetic code as the old, thus preserving the growth patterns and flavor profiles of the original vines.  No wonder Peter and Willinda are planning a trip to Burgundy in June, to pay homage!

Sincerely,

Willinda and Peter McCrea, proprietors                                    Mike Chelini, Winemaker