We recently had our annual Vertical Tasting of main and Reserve Chardonnays where we tasted eight vintages of each to see how they are aging. We were pleased with both flights. In this video, I share a few thoughts on the two tastings and explain how our Chardonnays age.

Sarah, Scott, Ricardo, Kate and I are all part of the tasting. We first smell each wine and make notes of the aromas. Next, we taste them (of course, spitting the wine out since the tasting is at 9:30 am when our senses are most acute) and describe the flavors we found and the mouthfeel. Then we all discuss our findings as a group.

After the tasting, Sarah compiles our notes on each wine. We will then share our thoughts on our website, so that if you have a specific vintage in your cellar, you can see what we thought of that wine. We will update these in a few weeks, and you can find them here:

Main Chardonnay notes
Reserve Chardonnay notes

Our goal is to make wines that age well and pair well with food. Sarah and I tend to enjoy our wines with more age on them; however, the wonderful thing about wine is that it is subjective and everyone’s tastes are different. I encourage you to trust your opinion about wine and we look forward to hearing your thoughts, particularly on vintages that you might have tucked away in your cellar. We often hear from patrons who find an older, forgotten bottle of Hafner Chardonnay but are pleasantly surprised at how well it aged. These message are a wonderful part of our day and underscore the pleasure of being in touch with our patrons by selling the wine only direct to people at home.