One must remember that although the Chalone appellation is part of Monterey, it is at 1,800 feet elevation. The fog that afflicts the Salinas Valley for much of the day during the growing season usually burns off by 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Chalone, leaving intense sunlight in its wake. This warming effect is greatly tempered by the mists and cool air from the Pacific Ocean, which swirl around the Pinnacles and its neighbor, Chalone Peak. These afternoon cooling influences can provide for daily temperature variations of 40˚- 60˚ during the growing season. If it were not for the upwelling of very cold Pacific Ocean water, the local climate would be more constant, and much warmer, something like the climate of Algeria.

The ecological community surrounding the vineyard is Chaparral, with low annual rainfall averaging around 12 inches per year. The most prominent flora are chemise, coast live oaks, blue oaks and over 600 species of wild flowers, which are the centerpiece of our annual spring Wild Flower Walk. The name of the mountain range, "Gavilan," is Spanish for sparrow hawk, a species which shares the area with a very diverse complement of animal life, ranging from mountain lions and bobcats, to road runners, great blue herons and kangaroo rats.

The makeup of the soil is quite unusual in that the limestone deposits are interspersed with decomposed granite and moderate amounts of clay, providing few nutrients and excellent drainage, a stressful combination.

These environmental elements combine to produce vividly flavored grapes and wines with pronounced varietal character, a great deal of complexity, and a pronounced "terroir," a French concept which describes those flavors unique to a specifically defined locality and derived from the soil, microclimate, and other environmental phenomena.
Preservation in the wine of the concentrated and unique fruit flavors that we achieve in the vineyard. We have sought to maximize the ripe fruit flavors, body and richness of the wine and to complement that with appropriate acidity and barrel aging.
This philosophy of winemaking and grape growing is based on extensive vineyard and winery experimentation to determine how best to enhance the grape flavors and wine complexity while balancing structure, texture and ageability.

Our experiments have led to a wine style that best expresses the rare characteristics of our vineyards in an elegantly structured, complex wine with considerable aging potential.
Above all else, a no-holds-barred dedication to the quality of the wine.

It’s been a constant learning experience over the years and we’ve performed one experiment after another in order to grow better grapes and make better wine. One might say that Chalone is one never-ending experiment which started in 1919 and has continued even through today. We typically today perform as many as 40 commercial sized experiments each vintage, relating to either vine growing or wine making. Through this process, we have learned a great deal about our vineyard and have been innovative in regards to wine growing.

Chalone Vineyards Copyright © 1998