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A cool-vintage, mineral and energetic Chardonnay with green apple, Asian pear, stone-fruit blossom and lemon curd. Balanced acidity and a sappy, lively mouthfeel; mouthwatering now, it will gain weight and complexity with age.
Available in store
Close100% Chardonnay
Food pairings: Roast chicken, shrimp scampi, and seared scallops with risotto.
Scores:
Winemaking: The aim at Hirsch is to express the site with as little intervention as possible, bringing the acidity and minerality of the vineyard to the fore while fruit and oak play a supporting role. The grapes are pressed directly and moved to oak barrels for fermentation and élevage, with no yeast added at any point. Both the primary and malolactic fermentations take place in barrel, and there is no lees stirring. For the 2021, 27% of the barrels were new. The 2021 season began with drought and a cold, windy spring, then turned into an ideal mild summer. Picking started on August 30, and the whole vineyard was harvested in under two weeks.
Vineyards and terroir: This is an estate Chardonnay from biodynamically farmed vines at Hirsch Vineyards, high on the ridges of the Fort Ross-Seaview appellation in the far northwest of Sonoma County. The vineyard lies less than three miles from the Pacific and about half a mile from the San Andreas Fault. Its maritime climate brings temperate winters and cool, foggy summers. The fault's uplift left a jumbled mosaic of clay, rock, loam and sand, so the estate is farmed as 67 separate blocks. The Chardonnay comes from two small plantings: a rocky 40% slope in Block 10, planted in 1994 with cuttings from Joe Rochioli, and a sandstone hill in Block 12, planted in 2002 just over the ridge. Together they are very small plantings, so production is very limited.
Family and history: David Hirsch bought the land in 1978 and planted his first vines in 1980, making Hirsch one of the oldest vineyards on the West Sonoma Coast. Its Pinot Noir became sought after by Williams Selyem, Littorai, Kistler and others. David had meant to plant Nebbiolo on the Block 10 slope, but Burt Williams of Williams Selyem told him to plant Chardonnay instead. Williams Selyem made wine from those vines from 1997 to 2000, and Kistler took the fruit through 2005. The family made its first estate Pinot Noir in 2002, finished building its winery in 2003 and released its first estate Chardonnay with the 2006 vintage. Conversion to biodynamic farming began in 2011, and since 2019 David's daughter Jasmine Hirsch has been the winemaker.
In the pictures: Hirsch Vineyards' ridgetop vineyards rising above the coastal fog in Fort Ross-Seaview (photo: Jak Wonderly, Hirsch Vineyards press material). Spring growth on a Hirsch ridge as the fog rolls in from the Pacific (photo: Erik Castro, Hirsch Vineyards press material).
