Release Date: Summer 1978

The juice pressed from these Chardonnay grapes was a prophecy of richness. Golden-green in color, highly viscous from an intense sugar concentration (24.0° B), the liquid promised a wine of mouth filling strength. And so it is that the 1976 Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay is a wine of extraordinary strength with luscious, spicy overtones.

195 boxes of grapes were crushed directly into our Howard Rotapress and squeezed to pressures of six atmospheres. From here the juice was racked to 60 gallon Limousin oak barrels where it was inoculated with active Champagne yeast. The primary fermentation took place in these barrels for two weeks at a cellar temperature of 55° F. Having been fermented and aged in oak barrels, the wine achieved a brilliant clarity through natural settling. Thus, only a minimum, stability filtration was necessary. This is a big, intense Chardonnay that will add richness to any occasion.