2022 Silhouette Chardonnay

Winemaking

Silhouette is a limited production white wine worthy of a collector’s cellar. This hallmark Chardonnay captures the Schlatter Family’s vision of crafting an old-world style white wine from Napa Valley. Since the first vintage in 1993, we have selected our very best Chardonnay lots for the Silhouette bottling. This vintage is no exception. Sourced from the best Chardonnay block in the historic Stanly Ranch Vineyard on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA, our Silhouette is a uniquely captivating wine. Meticulously crafted using time honored old world techniques, the gentle native barrel fermentation allows for the full expression of the fruit, resulting in a wine that is elegantly balanced, refined, and complex.

Hand harvested at night to retain vibrant acidity, the grapes for Silhouette were whole cluster pressed to a temperature controlled stainless steel tank to settle the juice, then racked into French oak barrels the following day. The winemaking techniques were classic Burgundian—spontaneous native yeast barrel fermentation, gentle bâttonage and natural malolactic fermentation. The wine was aged for 14 months on fine lees in 50% new French Burgundian oak barrels, and was racked once before bottling.

Tasting Notes

The 2022 Silhouette is everything we love about great Chardonnay—bright, fresh, full, complex, long and delicious. Barrel fermented with native yeasts in the classic Burgundian style, the wine is unctuous and full while expressing the bright acidity of the cool Carneros appellation. Notes of dried apricot and orange peel, white rose petal and elder flower, hints of chamomile, crushed oyster shell, with barrel notes reminiscent of dulce de leche. Generous on the entry to the palate, with fresh acidity, the wine is plush while maintaining a linear focus creating great length on the palate. An excellent food companion, the wine is also stunning on its own and will continue to evolve over the next 10+ years.