At Simi, our tradition is cutting edge. And our Russian River Goldfields vineyard is part of that story. In 1990, we acquired Goldfields to be the base for our Reserve estate and Sonoma County Chardonnay. It was just after the demise of AXR, at a time when there were a handful of clones and rootstocks were still being proven. We had a unique opportunity to do something special at Goldfields.

In the old Chardonnay vineyards of California, there were some 50 different clones and they were full of viruses. Those that performed well on certain rootstock became their own clones. They were heat-treated to remove the virus and make them safe and everybody planted them. But the problem was that modifying and 'cleaning' them up removed variation and instead of diversity, all the material in the vineyard has much less range.

We wanted to maintain those intrinsic nuances that made California Chardonnay different. So we planted Goldfields with old field selections or mass selections, taking cuttings from some of the best and oldest vineyards in California. The combination of field selections, a variety of rootstocks and an exceptional site for Chardonnay gives us a wine with an abundance of forward fruit, complexity and diversity in flavor and character. Today when we taste through vintages of our Reserve Chardonnay, we find more flint and mineral character coming into the wine. We've captured that nerve and zing we love about California Chardonnay.

Simi Reserve Chardonnay: Vibrant and nervy on the palate-an intricate balance of warm and cool fruit flavors, distinctive mineral notes and layers of integrated French oak. Flavors reflect the diversity of selections within the Goldfields vineyard.

Sonoma County Chardonnay: Bright Russian River and Carneros Chardonnay accented by lemon, and apple pie spice with a silky finish.