2010 Nevaeh White
A truly exotic wine loaded with richness and complexity. The nose of this golden wine shoots from the glass with Persimmon, Asian Pear, anise and floral notes leading to a full and round palate packed with intense stone fruit and sweet asian spice before having a long bright finish. Great today but will drink well for 4-6 years.
Food Pairing:
The Nevaeh White would be a great pairing with Free Range Chicken (ideally Fields of Athenry) quarters roasted with orange slices and white wine, served over dill and lemon infused basmati rice.
Vineyard Information:
This Chardonnay is sourced from the Hill Block of our estate Nevaeh Vineyard. The Hill Block of Nevaeh vineyard is a south facing slope that creates most of Tarara’s richest fruit. The soils are deeper and there is better air movement coming from the closer proximity to the Potomac River. This helps the fruit enjoy a longer potential hang time in Loudoun’s warmer fall evenings. There are several limestone deposits that cut through the Hill block because of its close proximity to the river. The fruit from the Hill tends to be well structured and more complex showing a great combination of bright berry fruit and minerality. The Viognier comes from the Pond Block which is the coolest site in the Nevaeh Vineyard which is great for preserving aromatics and acidity in certain varietals like Viognier. It too has many limestone deposits closest to the river valley. The wines tend to be fresher, more aromatics with citrus and floral notes.
Harvest Conditions:
The 2010 vintage simply put was hot and dry. With Loudoun County and Monticello receiving really no recordable precipitation from May until October we knew that berry weights were going to be down significantly. This is the result of less water in the fruit and therefore creates more intense concentration. That coupled with the record breaking heat that we received (many 100+ days) the fruit in 2010 is exotic, rich, fruit driven and powerful. The sugars far outpaced the ripening of flavors, phenolic ripeness and acidity ripeness so one should expect higher alcohols then in any other vintage in Virginia, which should be well balanced still by the intensity of fruit and pure power of the wines.
Even though the season was uncharacteristically hot and dry, there was also very low humidity which was a nice change for us in Loudoun and most of Virginia. This caused some of the healthiest vines we have seen and the least hands on work that was needed. The Winter leading up to the growing season saw record snow falls which left the soil with the moisture needed to help maintain health without the need of any irrigation, while still not being abundant and causing any dilution issues. The crop was incredibly small with even less yield from the fruit meaning that the 2010’s will not be in large supply, although they are expected to be in large demand.
While the 2010’s might not be the best expression of our terroir in general, the wines are of a different style that many will find very enjoyable. These wines are about extraction, richness, exuberant fruit, and exotic character, as apposed to our normal elegant yet powerful styles that most of our vineyards offer.
Winemaking:
The Nevaeh White was fermented on indigenous yeast in barrel with a max temperature around 76 degrees F. The wine spend was racked off the lees post fermentation and returned to barrel very clean with no lees stirring. The wine spent 10 months in barrel before being blended and filtered. The wine did not go through any malo-lactic fermentation.
