Vineyards

Our Chardonnay vineyard was planted in 2003 and our Pinot Noir was planted in 2008 into five main blocks:

  • Block one is on the southeast corner of the property and is planted primarily in Chardonnay ESP352, Cert 41 on Schwartzman rootstock with the balance being Syrah 877 also on Schwartzman rootstock.

  • Block two in on the northeast corner of the property and is all Chardonnay 4 on 101-14 rootstock.

  • Block three is on the northwest corner of the property and is all Chardonnay ESP352, Cert 41 on Schwartzman rootstock.

  • Block four is in the heart of the property and is all Pinot Noir Clone 777 on Schwartzman rootstock.

  • Block five is an extension of block one and is a Pinot grafted from a family friend's premium vineyard in the Russian River area.

 

Chablis

Our goal is to produce a crispy, clean, aromatic white wine that will both drink well today and age well for 3-5 years.  As such, we control our use of oak and control temperatures throughout the winemaking process to preserve the aromatics.

 

Given our cool location, we harvest in late September in two pulls - one at 23 Brix and the other at 24.5 Brix.  The grapes are hand picked, hand sorted, and whole cluster pressed after a cold settle.  Primary fermentation is done very cold in stainless with secondary fermentation being split between stainless, new French oak, and neutral French oak for a target of 20% new oak.  Wine that is secondarily fermented in oak goes through ML for a total target of less than 40% ML. All aging is done sur lie without stirring.

 

The 2008 growing season has been one of the most challenging on record.  The early crushing double frost that wiped out over 40% of our fruit, the big temperature variations throughout a relatively cool summer, and the blanketing smoke screen of the Northern California wild fires have all contributed to a very low yield and a very odd harvest.

 

Pinot Noir

Our goal will be to produce a Chambertin-style wine but we have a few years until we harvest.

 

Our chardonnay after the 2007 harvest

Gofessel Vineyards 20838 Burndale Road, Sonoma, CA 95476 Ph: 415.225.6801