Alcohol: 13.5 %
Grape(s): 100 % Chardonnay
Location: San Luis Obispo (SLO) Coast AVA, California, USA
Tasting Notes: Pale lemon-gold with silver highlights. Perfumed aromas of Meyer lemon, green pear, and white peach mingle with coastal jasmine, crushed seashell, and a subtle flinty note. On the palate: medium body, brisk acidity, and a silky texture carrying flavors of citrus zest, nectarine, and wet-stone minerality. Finishes long, mouth-watering, and elegantly saline.
Notes: Estate fruit from biodynamically farmed blocks at Phelan Farm, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Whole-cluster pressed; native-yeast fermentation in neutral French oak barrels. Aged 10 months on fine lees with minimal bâtonnage; bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve site expression. Minimal sulfur, no new oak—pure, ocean-cooled Chardonnay.
Food pairing: Dungeness crab, seared scallops, roast chicken with lemon-thyme, chèvre and herb tart, or simply grilled summer vegetables drizzled with olive oil.
Winery Story:
Brij Wines is a tiny, hands-on micro-négoce founded by winemaker Brianne “Brij” Day in 2019 with the goal of bottling California’s most compelling cool-climate sites through low-intervention methods. Operating out of a converted dairy barn near Paso Robles, Brij sources organically and biodynamically grown fruit from vineyards brushed by Pacific fog—from Mendocino’s coastal ridges down to Santa Barbara’s wind tunnels.
Phelan Farm, Brij’s SLO Coast partner, lies barely four miles from the ocean, where diurnal shifts of 40 °F and limestone-rich soils yield fruit of razor-sharp acidity and pronounced saline complexity. The blocks Brij selects are farmed regeneratively: sheep for mowing, compost teas for nutrition, and zero herbicides or synthetic inputs. Picked at dawn for maximal freshness, grapes travel less than 30 minutes to the cellar.
In the winery, gravity flow replaces pumps, ferments proceed with wild yeast in neutral barrels, and oxygen exposure is carefully rationed to capture the vineyard’s maritime fingerprint. Sulfur is added only after malolactic completion, just enough to ensure stability for shipping while maintaining vibrancy. Each barrel is tasted blind before the final blend; only the lots that sing of sea breeze, citrus, and chalk make it into the Phelan Farm Chardonnay. Production barely tops 300 cases, most sold direct to a devoted mailing list. For Brij Wines, transparency—from soil to glass—isn’t marketing; it’s the bridge (“brij”) connecting land, vintner, and wine lover
