"Vivid gold. Ripe pear, orange zest and smoky minerality on the nose. Deeply pitched but energetic, offering bright orchard fruit flavors and a deeper note of peach pit. Then spicy, dry and penetrating on the finish, which features notes of iodine and bitter herbs. Shows an intriguing blend of richness and vivacity and should be even better with a few years of bottle age." - STIWC 94

"Delivers a tight, taut laser beam of flavors, riding lively acidity that carries the green apple, pineapple, citrus and honeydew melon notes. Gains depth and velocity, and is built to gain even more with cellaring. Drink now through 2016." - WS 93

"The medium to full-bodied 2008 Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard offers scents of pineapples, pears, honeysuckle and subtle spicy oak. With good power, density and richness, it should drink nicely for 4-5 years." - RP 92

Wine maker notes

Situated directly in the center of the Russian River appellation, our block of Ken Ritchie’s vineyard was planted in 1972 to the Old Wente selection. Widely spaced - the fashion at the time – these old vines, with their thick gnarly trucks, produce only a tiny quantity of grapes per vine. The bench land soil is pure Goldridge loam, common to great vineyards in the in this part of the Russian River Valley. Like the wine from Hyde and the Hudson Vineyard, this wine is able to absorb more oak without being overwhelmed, and sees about seventy percent new Burgundian barrels. It spends about twenty-one months in barrel, completely sur lies, before being bottled without filtration. The 2002 vintage is our first release of this wine, of which we produced a small quantity - 323 cases.