Running Wild Chardonnay

Profile & Story

Benziger Family Winery traces back to 1973, when Mike and Mary Benziger moved to Northern California, and in 1980 Mike and his father Bruno acquired the Wegener Ranch on Sonoma Mountain in Glen Ellen; several more Benziger siblings joined the family venture by 1982. The estate converted to Biodynamic farming in 1995 and earned Demeter certification in 2000, with the family guided by the philosophy to "never settle for ordinary" under current steward Chris Benziger and Director of Winemaking Lisa Amaroli. Running Wild Chardonnay is sourced from the Paicines AVA in San Benito County on California's Central Coast, where sun-drenched slopes sheltered by the Gabilan Mountain and cooling breezes off Monterey Bay help preserve acidity while Diablo clay and silty clay loam soils shape the fruit's character. The hand-harvested, sustainably farmed wine undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation with four months of batonnage and is aged in French oak, which lends structure and notes of spice and warm vanilla. It shows a deep golden color with aromas of ripe pear, honeysuckle, green apple and citrus rind, and a creamy palate with energetic acidity and flavors of manuka honey, butterscotch and nutmeg.