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Did Curiosity Kill Schrodinger’s Cat? Who Knows But it Sure Made a Great Chardonnay!

At Chateau MerrillAnne, we love crafting wines that people know and love, but we also thrive on pushing boundaries and asking, “What if we…?” This spirit of discovery is evident in our orange-style Viognier—The Laranga, our limoncello-style fortified wine—Vincello, and our bold red fruit bomb—Green & Royal. Our latest venture, The Black Chardonnay, playfully named Schrödinger’s Cat, is a testament to our curiosity and passion for unique winemaking techniques—delivering a wine that is as intriguing as it is delicious.

Black Chardonnay is not a new style of winemaking, in fact. It’s an ancient technique, but it’s just seldom utilized. One of the most basic goals of wine production is to craft the wine and bottle it while minimizing exposure to oxygen. Oxygen is blamed for the loss of fruit flavor and browning among other things. With Black Chardonnay, oxygen is not the villain but instead it is the hero. In a nutshell, oxygen is purposely introduced to the must or juice prior to yeast inoculation. No SO2 is used at this time. This creates a very dark brown, sometimes almost black juice as the phenols are oxidized and turn a dark color. Then, the juice is allowed to settle in an environment cold enough to prevent native yeast fermentation and those dark phenols precipitate out of the juice changing the color from dark brown/black to a beautiful golden hue in just a few days. With these phenols now removed you have eliminated much of the sharpness, and despite traditional thinking, you are left with great fruit flavors. From that point forward, production follows a conventional path.

So why name the wine Schrödinger’s Cat? Truthfully, we weren’t entirely sure how it would turn out. When it came time to leave the oxygenated juice alone and let it work its magic, the final result was uncertain—much like the famous thought experiment.

Now, it is with great pleasure and excitement that we invite you to join us in celebrating the highly anticipated release of our Schrödinger’s Cat Black Chardonnay on March 15th! Come out, relax, and enjoy a new wine that will surprise and delight you.

Cheers, peace, and good health from your friends at Chateau MerrillAnne.

Interested in joining us for the release event on the 15th? Check out our Facebook event page for more information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/933963882156766
To deep dive into the winemaking of this curious wine, follow the link below:
https://vinosanctum.com/articles