2020 Arnot-Roberts Watson Ranch Chardonnay

VARIETAL: Chardonnay
REGION: Napa Valley, California, USA
VITICULTURE: Organic
WINEMAKER: Duncan Arnot Meyers & Nathan Lee Roberts

"Watson Ranch Vineyard is perched on a steep hillside overlooking the San Pablo Bay at the southernmost end of the Napa Valley. The ranch was named after early Napa attorney, Augustus Watson, who owned the property in the early 1900s. The adjacent property is an abandoned limestone quarry which historically employed over 300 people, mining material to make portland cement used to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Exposed and unprotected from the elements, this wind-whipped site was planted in 1993 by the talented Napa Valley veteran grower Salvador Ramos. Soils at Watson Ranch are composed of calcareous clay over limestone. This soil type is extremely rare on the North Coast but shows itself in a narrow fin at the tail end of the Vaca Mountains in Southern Napa County. This fractured, well-drained calcareous soil, coupled with organic farming and cool windy conditions, imbue this parcel with great potential to produce world-class Chardonnay. The fruit we harvest each year from Watson is consistently textural and vibrant with underpinnings of ample natural acidity and salinity."

Since foundation 2001, Arnot-Roberts has been one of the most progressive and revolutionary producers on the California landscape. Initially their focus was just on making great Californian wines, but when the cool 2005 vintage gave them wines in a more austere, high acid style than the region was used to, Nathan and Duncan reacted completely differently to practically everyone else in California – they loved them and decided to pursue lower ripeness levels and higher acidity in all of their wines henceforth.

Their focus shifted to the best cool climate sites they could find, most of which were struggling to sell their fruit due to the obsession with high sugar levels that was pervasive at the time. Vineyards like Clary Ranch, Fellom Ranch, Luchsinger and Griffin’s Lair are lauded today, but not long ago it was only Nathan and Duncan that wanted their fruit.

Winemaking at Arnot-Roberts borrows from both the old world and new. While each wine gets its own regime, the general technique is decidedly low-tech, and includes indigenous fermentations, little or no new wood, and whole-cluster inclusion for the red wines. Intervention is minimal - just a conscientious addition of SO2 prior to bottling.