From the winery:
Flavors built around Smoky, toasty, mocha-laced oak and ripe opulent fig, pear & honeydew ending with toasted marshmallow aftertaste.
Making Chardonnay from Gamble Ranch feels like revisiting an old friend every year, and it only seems to get better and better. Gamble is a big property in the heart of Napa Valley – it spans the Yountville and Oakville Crossroads – and it’s divided into dozens of small blocks according to soil type, aspect, etc. Our fruit comes from a few small blocks planted with a mix of rootstocks and clones – very specific sites I’ve identified over the years as producing particularly rich, flavorful and complex Chardonnay. This harvest marks the 8th vintage of this wine for Sbragia Family Vineyards.
Gamble Ranch produces grapes that can stand up to the style of Chardonnay I love: big, bold and gutsy, but never out of balance. Adam and I give the juice a gradual month-long fermentation in barrel, then allow the wine to go through 100% malolactic fermentation. The wine spends a full 18 months in 100% new French Burgundian barrels, with weekly lees stirring to integrate the oak and give the wine extra creamy richness.