This is our first release of a clone-specific wine for Sunset Hills. The goal is to show you a specific terroir, one that year after year delivers excellent fruit quality. I chose clone 96 for its complexity both in ripening and barrel aging. During ripening, the fruit has notes of pineapple and pear with great acidity. I saw this wine as a chance to highlight not only the vineyard, but how detailed we can get in growing and making wine.
100% Chardonnay:
75% Clone 96
20% Clone 76
5% Clone 17
Notes of light honeysuckle, Asian pear, raw almond, and lemon custard. Medium body and medium acid.
Chicken breast with braised collard greens.
Glazed eggplant with sorghum miso, clementine & spicy pecans.
Porchetta with fire roasted pear.
"We will be seeing more Virginia wines made from grapes grown in the Shenandoah Valley, as wineries plant new vineyards there to meet the state’s demand. Here’s a lovely chardonnay from Sunset Hills, one of Loudoun County’s leading wineries, from Shenandoah grapes.
Wow — almost every Virginia winery makes chardonnay, if only because they feel customers will demand it. A few are making exceptional chardonnay. I’d add Sunset Hills to that list based on this wine. It features lovely flavors of ripe peach and apricot, buttressed by a hint of oak. This is beautifully aromatic, textured and long. There is a hint of bitterness on the finish some might find distracting, but it evens out with food. Don’t serve this too cold, and use your larger red wine glasses to give the aromas room to flourish. This wine is a club members’ special at the winery in Purcellville, in Loudoun County. Alcohol by volume: 12.5 percent. - Dave McIntyre"
- Washington Post (February 2020), EXCEPTIONAL - three Stars ***
Working long hours in high rise buildings in Reston Virginia, Mike and Dana Carrey would look out the window from their offices down to the scenic landscape of the original ...
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