Antica Terra 2021 Aequorin chardonnay

The 2021 Antica Terra chardonnay Aequorin rises from the glass with the warmth of summer hay and sage grass, belying its tightly grained austerity, briny acidity, and architectural detail. Almost painfully intense on the palate, with penetrating lemony fruit, cut incisively with oyster shell minerality, it conveys outstanding cut and precision to its flavors of citrus peel, white flowers, and chiseled quartz; finishing with profound energy and rising length.

Both chardonnay and pinot noir tell their stories across a broad arc of expression; from pale, fair and ethereal to saturated and stacked. In some vintages, these voices come together in one symphonic chorus but oftentimes, the highest possible answer allows us – or rather, demands – that we turn our attention to a single expression and allow it to rise into a bottle of its own.

Only produced in certain vintages, Aequorin chardonnay steps down from the risers and into the spotlight to deliver the rarest solo performances. 

 

Antica Terra 2021 as-yet-unnamed chardonnay

As the 2021 chardonnay blends took shape, an unexpected and confoundingly limited blend took us by surprise. This as-yet-unnamed chardonnay demanded its own bottling. Wildly energetic, astonishingly powerful, and crystalline it serves as example of chardonnay’s potential, not only in this place but in the world. Utterly fine-grained and impressively but not unwelcomely architectural, this chardonnay holds a deep vein of oceanic acidity. At the first crack of the cork, the wine immediately opens like bird shot, straight from the barrel of a shotgun after dropping the hammer (one of our all-time favorite scents…) expanding, and sweetening, as it meets the air, to marzipan and Eureka lemon. Intensely spicy and herbaceous on entry, flavors of nasturtium flower and snap pea evolve at the wine’s center to a deep salinity, carrying its oceanic expression through a tingling, palate-staining finish. As we expanded our chardonnay holdings from one to five sites over the last decade, this is exactly the expression of chardonnay we were hoping would someday reveal itself to us, and we’re so pleased to be able to share this dream with you. Don’t sleep on this one – there were, heartbreakingly, only seventy-five cases produced.

 

Antica Terra 2022 Angelicall rosé

The 2022 Antica Terra rosé Angelicall, is, as with all of our rosés, the clearest sightline through to the overarching character of the vintage. Here we see the season in perfect focus with its aerial freshness, delicate transparency and mica-like layering. Having lived its life in two terracotta amphorae, the 2022 Angelicall brings a weighted, grounded, textural foundation to the vintage’s telltale rosewater, Montmorency cherry and pink peppercorn characteristics.

 

Antica Terra 2021 Antikythera pinot noir

The 2021 Antica Terra pinot noir Antikythera is particularly sylvan, belonging to prime temps, bringing top notes of pine needles and juniper berries layered over morel and feather moss. Molasses, fresh tar and Eustacia Vye rose find frame in the wine’s divaricate structure, filigreed with finest, chalky tannins — shapeshifting at the energetic crescendo trying to, and finally finding, resolve. The finish is all red; molten lava, snap of cherry, dripping plum.