Être Chardonnay ❤️ … I almost don't want to describe this beauty for fear of putting it in a box 📦 , which is one place this stunning wine certainly does NOT belong. Is it chardonnay? Yup, but not a typical chardonnay. Is it unoaked? Yup! But does it taste like a typical unoaked Chardonnay? Hell no.

Être Chardonnay is Jeff Gaffner’s (Saxon Brown founder/winemaker) gift to the love of his life. Tracey LOVES Chablis (unoaked Chardonnay from the region of Burgundy, France) so Jeff made her a Chablis-style chardonnay and called it Être, after the wonderfully romantic French term of endearment “Raison d’Être”. He went above and beyond by sourcing grapes from two rock star vineyards: Sangiacomo and Durell Vineyards. Then he took these golden grapes and put more love and care into making the wine than most people put into raising children. Although unoaked, the constant Battonage (stirring) gives this wine a creamy texture that you wouldn’t expect and now never want to miss out on…. It’s simply a must-try so add it to your list.

Jeff’s Notes:
Être is an un-oaked and non-malolactic Chardonnay. The grapes for our 2016 Etre Chardonnay were harvested in the early morning to preserve fruit flavors and bright acidity and immediately transferred to the winery where they were whole fruit pressed.  The juice was then racked to a small fermentation tank and inoculated with a minimal amount of Chablis/Burgundy yeast. After cold fermenting at 55 F for just over 100 days, the wine was sur lie aged for an additional 8 months to impart a rich creaminess to the core Chardonnay flavors.  The wine was bottled unfined and lightly filtered.  569 cases.