The Arsonist Chardonnay 2017

As farm kids growing up in the late 1950's and early 1960's, the Giguiere brothers were veritable pyromaniacs, setting numerous things on fire - including the family wheat fields. Fearing total ruin of house and farm, the boys' father one day left them at the city jail for an hour's "stay" to impress upon them the dangers of their fascination with fire. But it was to no avail. They soon graduated to launching rockets, which resulted in more uncontrolled blazes and calls to the fire department. Over time, the Giguiere boys outgrew their fascination with the flame.

They've honoured their past fire-starting ways with a range of wines that show case the best of Dunnigan Hills and named them the Arsonist. The Arsonist Chardonnay is a sumptuous full-bodied white with pronounced flavours of ripe stone fruit, vanilla and baking spices. We wouldn't hang about to buy this wine though, if the Giguiere boys fall into recidivism, there might not be a winery next year...
325 acres in the Dunnigan Hills AVA were purchased by John & Lane Giguiere in 2002. In the spring of that year 73 acres were planted to Chardonnay, Syrah, Tempranillo, Graciano and Malbec. The first harvest was in the fall of 2004 and Winemaker Dan Cederquist came aboard in early 2005 and has supervised all winemaking activities since then. The first wines were released in 2006. The vintages of 2004-2007 were all made at [custom-crush] facility Sonoma Wine Company near Santa Rosa. Matchbook Winery was built in 2008 and all subsequent vintages have been made at the vineyard site. 2000+ contiguous acres were purchased in 2011 with new planting every year. The company currently has 1500+ acres under vine and 280 acres planted to Spanish & Greek olives.
Arsonist Chardonnay is produced primarily from Dijon clones 4 and 124. The vines are vertically trellised on an east/west orientation and mechanically harvested at night when they reach proper ripeness. The juice is 100% barrel-fermented in a blend of European and American oak barrels with lees stirring every 10-14 days. After 15 months age in oak the wine is sterile filtered and bottled.