2014 Capablanca Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley 750 ml

“Blowout the Bits and Pieces!!”

There’s one thing about WineAccess, life’s never dull. Last summer we made a decision to move all of our logistics operations from Oregon to Napa. We chose a partner company that, on paper, seemed perfectly suited for the task. No longer would there be lengthy delays between orders and shipments, we were assured. A second warehouse in the midwest would be fully operational by May 15, making summer shipping a piece of cake. By all accounts, all was progressing according to plan … until, of course, it wasn’t.

Without sharing the gory details of the legal spat that followed, suffice it to say that in the last weeks of December, we terminated our contract with the first company and signed on with their primary competitor. We’d learned our lesson. The new contract has teeth and penalizes the new partner if shipments aren’t made with 99% accuracy. So far so good. 16,000 packages were shipped in the last 30 days, there were just four mis-picks.

The transition, as you may imagine, was challenging. There were thousands of cases that needed to be counted and recounted when inventory numbers didn’t match up (don’t get us started!). Then all had to be hauled from the two existing warehouses to the new ones. We budgeted two weeks for the transition. We were back in business in only 12 days.

That’s the good news. Here’s the not so good, at least for our accountants. As expected, we managed to lose a few hundred cases in the shuffle, bottles that somehow never made it where they were supposed to go. Rather than counting, recounting, and then hopefully rerouting the stragglers, we’ve been ordered to clean up the remaining inventory — to “BLOWOUT THE BITS AND PIECES!!!”

Here’s blowout #1.

On the Santa Barbara coastline, the mountains don’t run north-south as they do on Sonoma Coast, but rather east-west. As a result, a steady flow of fog and cold air blankets the Santa Maria Valley, providing what Chardonnay likes best — a slow-maturing growth cycle. At critically acclaimed Dierberg Vineyard, berries are tiny but loaded with sugar, still infused with the electrifying acid backbone that’s wowed both Wine Advocate and Antonio Galloni’s Vinous in each of the last three harvests.

2014 was a vintage for the record books at Dierberg and newcomer Capablanca took full advantage, crafting an exquisite Chardonnay drawn entirely from those small-berry clusters at Dierberg Vineyard.

Brilliant pale-green in hue. Piercing aromas of lemon, lime, and beeswax, a hint of anise and white flowers. The attack is at once rich, generous, and tightly wound; more white Burgundy in style than Sonoma Coast, infused with fine layers of ripe citrus and orchard fruits, finishing with great tension and bracing acidity.

Compared to $35. Offered at $19/bottle last year. Just $15 this morning as we BLOWOUT the bits and pieces.