Rasa Vineyards Dream Deferred Chardonnay 2023
From the winery:
Rasa Vineyards is the realization of our passion, vision and commitment to create a world-class winery focused on producing ultra-premium, terroir specific wines from Eastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon.
We fell in love with wine in 1991. Since then, we’ve tasted hundreds of wines every year and developed a deep appreciation for everything about wine. For years we dreamed of starting our own winery.
In 2006, Billo applied to the UC Davis Masters program for Viticulture and Winemaking. He was one of ten to get accepted that year. He called me and asked what he should do. It was the same year I was turning 40. If we didn’t do this now, we never would and we would regret it for the rest of our lives. So, he quit Hewlett Packard and went to school full-time. I spent the next year formulating a business plan, doing financial projections, and creating operational links to ensure we had a path to success.
In 2007, while Billo was still in school, we felt we were ready. That year, we created two wines: 2007 QED (a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre) and 2007 Principia Reserve Syrah. The QED received 94 points from Wine Spectator and the Principia received a perfect rating from Rand Sealey of Review of Washington Wines – not a bad way to start.
Ten years later, we continue to be proud of what we do. We remain committed to making the best wines in the world. In 2006, we made the decision to start our winery, we subsequently left our high-tech jobs behind, and we’ve never looked back.
The 2023 Dream Deferred Chardonnay shows great aromatic complexity and impressive palate concentration. The wine shows beautiful balance of ripe fruit, vibrant acidity, and rich lees texture. Explosive aromatics of pear, tangerine peel, allspice, vanilla, brioche, and hazelnuts. The palate has well delineated notes of pear, apple, lemon curd, tangerine peel, honeycomb, and brioche. Minerality and spice notes echo of the long, lifted finish. This is a very complex, rich, concentrated style that drinks well now but will improve in the cellar over the next 5-7 years.
The clusters were pressed and the juice settled for 12 hours. The wine was barrel fermented: 33% new French Oak, 33% neutral French oak puncheons (Troncais), 33% stainless steel. The wine was aged on the lees for 19 months with biweekly batonnage. One third of the wine went through secondary fermentation. The wine was not racked until bottling and no fining agents were employed. The wine was very lightly filtered to capture any remaining lees. The alcohol is 14.4%, pH is 3.67, and the titratable acidity is 6.1 g/L.
After my oldest boy turned 11, I would make him memorize poems (he loved me for it – what boy doesn’t want to memorize poems?). One poem is a small one by Langston Hughes called “Harlem [2]”. The poem starts by asking the question “What happens to a dream deferred?” The poem is really about racial inequality in post World War II America. But, Aidan read it literally and applied it to me – what would have happened to me if I didn’t follow my dreams of starting a winery. It’s now become my favorite way of interpreting this poem.
Harlem [2]
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
