The Harvest
2000 was what I call a typical season not abnormally long or particularly difficult. It was one of California’s biggest crops and we were concerned about achieving physiological ripeness. Consequently we made several passes through the vineyard to drop crop loads to 40 hectoliters per hectare, a bit higher then the previous vintages but set was very good and the flowers were healthy. The growing season moved along nicely without a hitch and many of my neighbors were able to get their large crop loads ripe without any trouble. Harvest began for us on October 21 and finished on October 23. Acids at harvest were about 2 grams lower than normal but we did not see a spike in pH and did not worry that the wine might show too much baby fat.

The Vineyard
Sleepy Hollow Vineyard is situated along the Santa Lucia bench in the northwestern section of the Salinas Valley of Monterey County. Planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in 1974, it was independently owned until 1990 when Robert Talbott purchased the property for his Talbott Winery.

The vineyard is broken up into two major parcels: A and B. Parcel B produces the best quality Chardonnay by far and it is in this parcel that Talbott Winery harvests grapes for its own Talbott Chardonnay. Our particular block within parcel B is Set 5, which is located in the upper 1/3 of the gently sloping vineyard. We select blocks located high on the slopes to ensure good drainage and intensity of flavor in the grapes. Soils consist of sandy loam and Monterey shale making for excellent drainage. The vines are on 5C rootstock and are a combination of Wente and Mount Eden clones. The trellis is a split canopy designed to acclimate the clusters to sun early in the year, thus avoiding sunburn later in the summer. This trellis design also helps to produce more evenly ripened fruit.

The Production
The wines of Burgundy have long captivated Arcadian Winery’s winemaker, Joseph Davis. He has studied and emulated those Burgundian artisans he most admires and for this bottling of Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay, he employed their traditional techniques to bring forth the uniqueness of these particular rows within Set 5.

The grapes were handpicked and delivered to the winery in the morning and then whole cluster pressed using a small bladder press. The more delicate, low phenolic juice offsets the lower yield of whole cluster pressing. The juice is cold settled for 24 hours and then racked to barrel. Fermentation took place in 100% new Sirugue French oak barrels. Concomitant with the primary fermentation is the malolactic fermentation (a conversion of malic acid to lactic acid). This conversion helps to reduce the total acid and softens the wine. The wine is aged sur lee for 15 months to reduce oxygen uptake and to soften the mouthfeel of the wine. Barrels are hand stirred every two weeks for six months to improve the textures of the wine. No filtration was required of this wine and only a bit of milk was used to fine out some proteins.