As the heart of our ever-popular Luke’s Grove bottling, Stiling Vineyard never fails to provide delicious, classic Russian River character with a floral Rued clone twist. For the mightily structured 2018 vintage we wanted to see how much we could coax out of it and layer into it with a little more oak and an extended nap in barrel.
32 months later (roughly double the time afforded to our regular Chardonnay) we bottled the utterly gorgeous, unabashedly old school results unfiltered and with a bare minimum of sulfur. All this extra time in barrel produced our most sumptuous Russian River Chardonnay to date.
Golden straw colored in the glass, this full bodied and utterly luscious wine satisfies the palate completely. Wonderfully rich, it’s loaded with roasted apple and stone fruit flavors wrapped in caramel, clove and nutmeg followed by a long and fresh lemon oil finish. Barrel contributions are (perhaps counterintuitively) super well integrated after all those months to harmonize. The long, slow exposure to tiny amounts of oxygen has been the transformative element, beautifully polishing and knitting everything together into one seamless flow.
Normally it would take many years in your cellar for a wine to achieve this development, yet there’s plenty of freshness and structure to allow further evolution. Reach for this one when you want something truly special.
DRINKING WINDOWS
Prime drinking: Mid 2022 through 2027 Graceful ageability: 2028+
VINEYARDS
96% Stiling, 4% Green Acres
CLONES
96% Rued, 4% Hyde
STATS
pH: 3.42 | TA: 6.2 g/L | Alcohol: 14.2 Bottling: June 7, 2021 | Release: Spring 2022 Cases Produced: 131
Direct sales are allocated exclusively to EK Allocation List members at a 10% discount. Orders of 6+ bottles save an additional 50% off shipping. New releases ship twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. Join EK Allocation List
CUSTOMIZED ALLOCATIONS
You may customize your spring and fall allocations any way you like, from 0–12 bottles of each wine. (Small-lot and list-only wines will have lower limits.) To modify your allocations, click on MY ALLOCATION above. Join EK Allocation List
REORDERS
Wines often sell out at or close to release, so we encourage making the most of your spring and fall allocations. As long as wine remains, you are welcome to reorder online through our EK Special Order store. Or contact John Gillis at john@erickentwines.com or 415.244.9453.
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