I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Yannick Rousseau to taste through some of his wines. He is about as fun to be around as his wines are to drink. His vivacious personality is contagious and this energy flows into his wines. Yannick comes from Southwest France and his passion for making wine in his own country brought him to the Napa Valley, where he landed a job as assistant winemaker for Newton Vineyards in 1999. It was at Newton that he had the privilege to learn alongside Luc Morlet, a Chardonnay genius and great winemaker, who later left to be the winemaker at Peter Michael. After 2 years at Newton, Yannick left to work as head winemaker of Chateau Potelle and developed a love for working with the vines from the remote Mount Veeder region. In 2007, Yannick started his own wine label Y. Rousseau, and he has stayed true to making classically styled Napa Valley wines that truly express the place in which they are made.

The fruit for his Mount Veeder Chardonnay is sourced from the well respected Godspeed Vineyard. This site is located about 9 miles west of Yountville, deep in the Mayacamas range, at close to 2000 feet of elevation. This high elevation keeps the grapes out of the fog most of the day, allowing for more sunlight and flavor development. The mountains have a lower temperature than the valley floor allowing the grapes to be picked later, while still retaining freshness.  Mount Veeder is quite unique in that the soil consists of a pushed up ancient seabed combined with volcanic dust bringing a fine minerality to the wines. The grapes are harvested as cold as possible, gently pressed and barrel fermented in french oak barrels (25% new), using entirely native yeasts. After fermentation, the wine spends 11 months on its lees and Yannick practices battonage (stirring the lees) often to bring more texture and richness to the palate.

The Y. Rousseau 2010 Mount Veeder “Milady” Chardonnay is a bright golden yellow with green and gold highlights on the rim. The nose expresses notes of dried pineapple, freshly cut yellow apple, ripe white peach, lemon meringue, vanilla and baking spices. The palate is round, creamy and full bodied finishing with a very fine minerality and citrus peel character similar to what you find in Burgundy. This wine shows perfectly after a few minutes open and I would strongly recommend drinking it close to cellar temperature (50-55 degrees) out of a large Burgundy stem for best results. To find a Napa Valley wine of this quality at this price is rare.