The majority of the fruit for this bottling comes from Chardonnay vines planted in 1969 by George Besson Sr. on a former plum orchard in Hecker Pass, at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The site has been farmed by George and his son, George Jr., for over five decades. Long sourced for Josh Jensen of Calera, this fruit now forms the core of Birichino’s first St. Georges Chardonnay. It’s complemented by additional Chardonnay from Coastview—an exposed, high-elevation site on limestone and granite soils in the Gabilan Mountains—as well as from the dry-farmed Peter Martin Ray Vineyard, planted in the early 1980s on fractured shale atop Mount Eden on the Saratoga side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Each lot was picked, gently pressed, and fermented with native yeast in stainless steel and old barriques. The wine completed malolactic naturally in the spring, and was racked once before bottling in June 2025. Bright and focused in style, with a core of citrus and stone fruit aromatics balanced by a rocky mineral note.