Playful, flamboyant, delightfully complex.
From a combination of three vineyard sites, picked in early September (before the year’s devastating fires), this cuvée displays the full range of the western Columbia Gorge AVA’s potential for elegance and playfulness.
Composition: 99% Chardonnay, 1% Roussanne
Production: 660 bottles
Recommendations for optimal use: enjoy in a Riesling-style glass, anytime with anything to lift the spirits. Foods that will work: Kaleidoscope’s complexity and vibrant balance supports a broad range of foods from a humble ham-butter-mustard baguette to the most complex seafood dishes, cured and smoked meats, steak tartare with excellent fries (or just the fries).
Details
Vineyards
Elevation: 1,100 – 1,350 feet above the Columbia
Locations / orientations: east-south and south-west facing
Soils: volcanic, loess, buckshot
Vine age: 5-39 years
Farming: dry farmed since the sites were planted, guyot & Scott-henry training
Winemaking
Harvest: September 2, 2020
Yields: ~ 2.1 – 3.3 tons per acre
Chemistry: 17.6 Brix, 10.5 grams TA, pH 2.95
Fermentation: native primary and malolactic, 3 months lees stirring, 7 months on lees
Tirage: 5.5 atmospheres
Disgorged: May 2023
Dosage: 2% still wine from a “perpetual” Chardonnay barrel + 1% Roussanne
No fining, filtration or cold stabilization
Total sulfur: 25ppm
Farming & Winemaking: Matthias Pippig & Andrew Riechers
Artwork: Christian Letts & Matthias Pippig