Renouveau Chardonnay honors family matriarch, 94 year-old Helen Bacigalupi
Healdsburg, CA (August 24, 2020) – Bacigalupi Vineyards introduces its first-ever Chardonnay from the historic Paris Tasting Block, a two and a half-acre plot planted in 1964 in the family’s Goddard Ranch Vineyard in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. The Bacigalupi’s gained widespread recognition as growers when Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay, made with 40 percent Bacigalupi fruit from the Paris Tasting Block, won the famed 1976 Judgement of Paris Tasting over many highly acclaimed French white wines. The 2018 Bacigalupi Vineyard Renouveau, meaning revival or renewal, is the first Chardonnay ever made solely from these history-making vines. The wine is dedicated to the family matriarch, 94-year-old Helen Bacigalupi, the current owner and longtime caretaker of this storied vineyard and its extraordinary legacy.
“In the harvest of 1973, our grandmother drove her burnt red Volkswagen truck over the hills to Calistoga at least five times, delivering grapes from these vines to Chateau Montelena,” said granddaughter Nicole Bacigalupi. “Now, their legacy has come back home, and we are thrilled to highlight the beauty of these special vines under our family label.”
According to Winemaker Ashely Herzberg, 2018 was an idyllic vintage in the Russian River Valley. After a moderately wet winter, bud break and bloom went very well, and a larger than average crop was set. The growing season was warm, but very even and a late August cooling streak slowed everything down in the vineyards and gave plenty of extended hangtime to all varietals before picking.
Vines in the Paris Tasting Block on Goddard Ranch are grown in red volcanic clay soils at 200-foot elevation. Herzberg says ripening varies among the 56-year old Wente clone vines producing texture, lushness, and complexity in the wine. ” Due to the vine’s age, we get hens and chicks or grape clusters whose berries vary dramatically in size. Some are very lush, oily, and rich, but other less mature grapes give briny minerality and bright and expressive adicity,” she said.
True to the Bacigalupi Vineyards winemaking style, the 2018 Bacigalupi Vineyards Renouveau Chardonnay ($82/btl) was made with minimal intervention, using indigenous fermentation with native yeasts from the skins to lend a precise expression to the wines that exemplify the terroir. Only one hundred cases were produced.
To purchase the 2018 Bacigalupi Vineyards Renouveau Chardonnay, visit www.bacigalupivineyards.com.
About Bacigalupi Vineyards
The Bacigalupi Vineyards name is an indisputable symbol of excellence — as 3rd generation growers of exceptional Russian River Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for notable wineries since 1956, and as a producer of rich and layered, site-driven wines made with minimal intervention under the family’s label since 2011. For more information, visit www.bacigalupivineyards.com.
