100% Chardonnay

Food pairings: Pan-fried trout with lemon butter, Dover sole, seared scallops and crab cakes. Serve at about 55°F.

Winemaking: The Roserock Chardonnay brings together the estate's three Chardonnay blocks, which are hand-picked and sorted. The fruit is pressed immediately and the juice sent in equal parts to stainless steel tank and to barrel. Once malolactic fermentation is complete, winemaker Véronique Boss-Drouhin assembles the two portions into her final cuvée. In 2023, budbreak came unusually late, at the end of April, before a heat surge and very little rain compressed the time from budbreak to bloom into a record 45 days. The fruit was in great shape when harvest began in September, and picking finished on October 5.

Vineyards and terroir: The Roserock estate sits on a south-facing ridge at the southern tip of the Eola-Amity Hills in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Its shallow, rocky, well-drained volcanic basalt soils grow at roughly 120 to 260 meters, among stands of ancient white oaks, a creek-fed pond and evergreen-hemmed meadows. Every evening in the growing season, Pacific breezes funnel through the Van Duzer Corridor and keep this part of the hills markedly cooler than the northern Willamette Valley, giving fruit lively acidity and fresh flavor. The vineyard is LIVE certified for sustainable viticulture.

Family and history: The Drouhin story began in Burgundy in 1880, when Joseph Drouhin founded his house in Beaune. Now in its fifth generation, the family established Domaine Drouhin Oregon in the Dundee Hills in 1987, and in 2013 bought Roserock, 25 miles to the south, as the newest chapter of the story. Véronique Boss-Drouhin makes the wines. The name pairs the fleeting beauty of roses with the strength and permanence of rock.

In the pictures: A vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills in early spring (photo: Agne27, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0). The vineyards of sister estate Domaine Drouhin Oregon in the Dundee Hills (photo: Luke, 2008, CC BY-SA 2.0).