2018 Ardure Chardonnay Hawkeye Ranch Vineyard

Region: Redwood Valley < Mendocino County < CAGrape: ZinfandelVineyard/Cellar Stats: CCOF-certified organic farming; soils are gravelly loam with huge chunks of energetic quartz crystal strewn throughout; grapes were foot tread for two hours and direct-pressed to a stainless steel tank for fermentation before racking off gross lees and put into neutral barrique to await malolactic conversion, which started almost immediately. Wine rested on its fine lees and was racked once to maintain freshness right before bottling in late July; bottled unfined, unfiltered with no added So2; 11.8% ABVWinemaker: Jason RuppertArdure, which translates to "the heat of passion" in olde French, is a brand-new project from my good friend Jason Ruppert, who has a long history in Bay Area wine.  He started as a sommelier running wine programs in Marin, Sonoma and SF before migrating into wine production, where he learned the ropes of biodynamic and organic farming from gurus like Ted Lemon of Littorai a