Wine of the Week: Migration, 2009 Russian River Valley Chardonnay

Serendipity?

Neil Bernardi went to Florence, Italy after high school and explored the regional wines. When he later studied Italian at U.C. Davis, he had a chance encounter that changed his perspective and ultimately his career.

Bernardi is the winemaker behind our wine-of-the-week winner - the Migration, 2009 Russian River Valley Chardonnay at $30.

Happenstance in 1999 led to a meeting with Jim Wolpert, Davis's viticulture and enology department chair at the time, and it inspired Neil to broaden his thinking.

"Jim helped me realize how rich and diverse the craft of winemaking is and how it incorporates so much artistry and so many disciplines, from chemistry and microbiology to languages, history and economics," Bernardi said. "Winemaking soon became my life."

During his time at Davis, Neil spent three years working in the lab of renowned sensory scientist Dr. Ann Noble, expanding his palate and serving as a guinea pig for her chardonnay and pinot noir studies.

Bernardi has been the winemaker at Migration in St. Helena since 2009, and he said the goal with Migration is to make a world-class chardonnay that also offers a phenomenal value for its quality.

"We are continuing to search out the best vineyards and barrels - but we will logically cap the production at less than 10,000 cases to ensure the quality and integrity of the wines," he said.

The house style of the Migration chardonnay, Bernardi said, is "fresh."

"We are dedicated to a cool-climate expression of Chardonnay - which for us means freshness and pure varietal flavors," he said. "Those are the qualities we try to accentuate in our winemaking. We are very judicious in our use of new oak and malolactic fermentation, because we don't want to undermine the freshness of the varietal …. From a stylistic standpoint, we view balance as our paramount goal."

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.