Chardonnay In Bloom

Long before a wine reaches your glass you can experience its very first aromas on a warm June day in the vineyard.

It happens at “bloom”; that miraculous sequence of events when grapes are pollinating. If the wind is calm and all the tiny white flowers on the vines are firing pollen you can just make out the subtle, almost honeysuckle-like aromas of wine grapes in the making.

Bloom is happening now in all the vineyard blocks surrounding our old Brick House…and, as always, it started like clockwork in our Chardonnay.

I don’t think it’s an accident of nature that Chardonnay blooms just about the time the salmon are running up the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. I think it’s a perfect natural concurrence, as if Mother Nature calls us to throw some wild fish on the grill and enjoy a taste of hand-crafted Chardonnay. At least that very often comprises dinner at Brick House this time of year.

—Doug Tunnell