Beaulieu Vineyard Chardonnay Carneros 2008

Although its not much compared to the long histories of some of the old vineyards and chateaux of Europe, Beaulieu Vineyard is the longest continually operating winery in Napa Valley. Beaulieu Vineyard or BV as many call it was founded in 1900 by George de Latour, who upon seeing the area in Rutherford that became home to his winery exclaimed "beau lieu" which is French for beautiful place. After some early success, de Latour signed contracts with the Catholic church in 1908 to provide them with sacramental wine, which ended up being a key move for the survival of the winery. Being a key supplier to the church allowed him to keep the winery in full operation through the Prohibition.

The winery not only survived but expanded through Prohibition times, and not long after Prohibition, de Latour hired Andre Tchellistcheff, a native Russian who learned the craft in France, to be his winemaker. Tchellistcheff was a key figure in the development of Napa Valley and brought many innovations to all of Napa Valley at the time. Some of the things he introduced to the fledgling Napa Valley wine industry include cold fermentation of white wines and malolactic fermentation for red wines, which became industry standards. Much of Napa's success is owed to the expertise that Tchellistcheff brought to the valley.

Today BV is still making very many good wines. I recently had the occasion to try their 2008 Carneros Chardonnay on a lazy spring afternoon with an assortment of cheese. The wine is golden straw color in your glass, and the nose brings elements of peach, pear, and a bit of vanilla. In your mouth you get beautifully pure pear fruit with well balanced oak and very nice acidity for a California Chardonnay. The finish is really enjoyable and has a little bit of length to it.

Overall, this is a very nicely done Chardonnay that has full body, some oak, and plenty of fruit without being too over the top like so many other offerings from Napa and Sonoma. Its also one of the few Chardonnays I've seen in the high teens price wise. Usually you see the $13 and under stuff and then jump right to the mid $20's. For about $5 more this is giving you a lot more balance and finesse then you see from the huge pack of California Chardonnays in the $10-$15 range. Drink this with fish, shellfish, or chicken. It would go especially well with lobster tails.

Cheers!

Catena Chardonnay 2007

Argentina never ceases to amaze me when it comes to wine. The results that they get with Malbec at high elevations have been phenomenal for quite some time now, and now I’m starting to see some interesting things happen with Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah in higher elevation vineyards. What I never expected was to see Chardonnay grown at elevations as high as 5000’ with good results. I guess that I should never underestimate Argentina and in particular I should never underestimate the winemakers at Bodega Catena Zapata.

Starting in 1902 when Nicola Catena came to Argentina from Italy, the Catena family has been making wines in Argentina for over a century now. For most of that time, they were making bulk wine for domestic consumption in Argentina, and for many of those years they struggled to survive as a winery. In the 1980’s Nicola’s grandson, Nicolas spent time as a visiting professor at UC Berkeley with many visits to nearby Napa Valley. In Napa, he was surprised to see that there were places in the New World that had the kind of terroir to make truly great wines. He returned to Argentina as an inspired man who immediately sold off their bulk wine business to focus on making great wine in the foothills of the Andes, and in my humble opinion he has had outstanding success with Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.

This offering from Catena is a Chardonnay that is grown in two different high altitude vineyards in the Mendoza region. The Lujan de Cuyo vineyard is at an elevation of 3100’ and the Tupungato vineyard is all the way up at 5000’. I did not have high expectation for Chardonnay grown at these high altitudes, but perhaps I just had the wrong attitude. This Chardonnay is very impressive.

Pale straw in color, the Catena Chardonnay 2007 brings aromas of apple and a little pear along with some subtle oak. In your mouth you also get apple and pear, but in this case it is the pear that dominates. In addition to the pear and apple, you also get a hint of peach on the palate. I love the fruit flavors in this wine. The oak is very well done without being overdone, and the wine has a medium-full bodied mouthfeel with very nice acidity and a great finish. Overall, this is a very nicely structured Chardonnay. It has a little something for everyone to like. Fruit, oak, body, acidity, and a nice finish all work beautifully together

With a retail price of $14.99, the Catena Chardonnay 2007 is a steal. At this price you’ll be hard pressed to find a better Chardonnay. This is a food friendly and versatile wine that you can enjoy with fish, shellfish, or chicken. We had it with sautéed chicken breasts in a parsley tarragon gremolata and they paired together beautifully. Enjoy!

My Visit to the Santa Cruz Mountains Appelation

Recently on a visit to Northern California for my real job, I had the opportunity to visit some wineries and tasting rooms in the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation. This area is unbelievably diverse in its microclimates. At one point in my drive to my first stop, the temperature changed 8 degrees over the course of 3 miles. As a result of the many diverse microclimates, there is a pretty wide variety of grapes being grown here, although the predominant varietals that winemakers are having success with seem to be Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The appellation itself covers over 350,000 acres and the vineyards range in elevation from 400 to 800 feet. Evenings tend to be foggy and cool with the sun burning off the fog every morning followed by higher temperatures. This allows the grapes to ripen effectively but slowly and results in a rather long growing season with a nice long hang time for the fruit. I should note that although all the wineries and tasting rooms I visited were in the Santa Cruz Mountains, not all of the fruit for every wine I tasted was from the appellation.

My first stop of the day was the only winery I was previously familiar with, which was Bonny Doon Vineyard. They have a very nice tasting room and restaurant right in the heart of Santa Cruz. Bonny Doon can best be described as a not so serious winery that makes some seriously good wines. Their leader, Randall Graham, a UC Davis grad, started Bonny Doon with the hope of making great Pinot Noir, but has since switched his focus to other grapes, most notably Rhone varietals. I tried a number of wines here including a Cinsault and an Albarino, which are pretty unusual for California, but the standouts here were definitely the Rhone style blends. The 2007 Le Cigare Blanc was a blend of 64% Rousanne and 36% Grenache Blanc. Pale in color, it had aromas of pear and melon with decent acidity, and it was a very good, refreshing wine. The 2004 Le Cigare Volant was a wonderful Southern Rhone style red with a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignane, and Cinsault. Aromas of cherry, sour cherry, licorice, and spice worked together to create a wonderful and complex bouquet. In your mouth you got more of the same flavors with an incredibly long finish. This was some very good stuff for only $30 a bottle!

My second stop of the day was Storrs Winery. Here, owners and winemakers Pamela and Steve Storrs are crafting a number of different wines in relatively small lots. Both Pamela and Steve are UC Davis grads with a wealth of knowledge, and Pamela focuses on the winemaking while Steve focuses on the vineyards. This sounds like a perfect marriage to me. Their annual production is about 10,000 cases, and all their vineyards are sustainably farmed. They are big believers that wine is made in the vineyard and that the winemaker just has to gently guide what nature and good farming provides. They are also big believers in the Santa Cruz Mountains as a great place to make Burgundian style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

During my visit I tasted a number of different wines poured by the very friendly and knowledgeable CJ in the tasting room, but it was definitely the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs that stood out here. Their 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay was a very good example of the potential this area has for Chardonnay. Pale straw in color, it was aged in French oak for 10 months. The nose was crisp with apple and pineapple and some well done, subtle oak that did not overwhelm the fruit. On the palate you had a nice mouthfeel with great acidity and minerality. The long finish displayed flavors of apple and pear with a hint of citrus. This was a very well done Chardonnay.

The other standout at Storrs was the 2006 Le Manoir Pinot Noir. Medium red in color, it had a great bouquet of cherry and strawberry fruit. On your palate you got much of the same great fruit flavors which were really nicely balanced by a very pleasant acidity. A lengthy finish followed to complete the experience with this very elegant and delicious wine.

My final stop in the day was a little further north at Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos, where I was greeted by the outstanding hospitality and knowledge of Jeanne in the tasting room. All wineries have a story, but this one has a pretty interesting one. Testarossa is essentially a hobby gone out of control for owners Rob and Diana Jensen who started making wine in their home. They slowly outgrew that and a number of other facilities before finally stumbling across the old Jesuit Novitiate Winery in Los Gatos that is one of the oldest wineries in the country and one of very few that made wine right through Prohibition. They now lease that facility from the Jesuits and have their winery and tasting room located there. As a graduate of a Jesuit high school, this place had some added meaning for me. .

The top wines I tasted at Testarossa were both Pinot Noirs. The 2007 Rosella’s Vineyard Pinot Noir was a beautiful light red color in your glass. The nose brought cherry and strawberry fruit with some great spice. On your palate the wine was fruit forward but it had some spice and nice acidity to balance things out. This wine belongs on the Thanksgiving table! The 2007 Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir which has not yet been released was also outstanding. It had an absolutely wonderful bouquet that was bursting with cherry and strawberry fruit. In your mouth it had a very nice, elegant structure with cherry, strawberry, and some sour cherry fruit and a very subtle element of spice. Although I think it will need a couple years to fully develop, this has the potential to be an outstanding Pinot.

Well that’s about it for my brief visit to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not knowing much about the area or its wineries heading into my visit, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wines that I found.

Johnson Family Chardonnay 2008 Sonoma Coast

These days it seems it’s really hard for me to find an everyday Chardonnay that I can get really excited about that isn’t ridiculously expensive. I will also admit that I can be a little fussy about what I want out of a Chardonnay. I like my Chardonnay to have a really nice balance of fruit, oak, and acid. If any one of these elements is missing or so strong that it overpowers the rest of the wine, I find myself a little disappointed.

Johnson Family is one of those wonderful second label value wines that are made by great wineries and winemakers when they have a glut of high quality grapes for their higher end label. Instead of making more of the main label and perhaps getting supply, demand, and price out of balance, they will bottle some wine under a second or phantom label. In this case the very secret winemaker is from Sonoma and is wel known for making many excellent Chardonnays that retail for $40 and up.

The Johnson Family Chardonnay 2008 from the Sonoma Coast is a Chardonnay that gives me everything I want in really nice balance. In your glass you get intense golden color, which did have me a little concerned at first that this was going to be an over rich, buttery to the point of being flabby Chard, but that was absolutely not the case. The nose brings very nice aromas of apple pie and some toasty oak that does not overwhelm the fruit. In your mouth you get more of the same with some pear mixed in with the apple and the oak. Again, the oak is more than subtle but less than overwhelming. The unknown winmaker really did an outstanding job with the barrel aging in French oak. The mouthfeel is rich, but it is beautifully balanced by some refreshing acidity. This is a very nicely structured Chardonnay.

This is a great, food friendly offering from Johnson Family that could go with a number of things. Nicely balanced Chardonnays like this go very well with poultry and seafood. I had this with a grilled, marinated chicken breast, and they worked quite well together. I’d like it even more with some pan seared scallops or a broiled lobster tail.

Priced at $17, it’s a very nice Chardonnay for the money. Probably the best I’ve found under $20. Cheers!

Sebastiani Chardonnay Sonoma County 2006

More and more lately I'm finding that I "used to" be a fan of buttery, oaky California Chardonnays. Part of me believes that my preference has changed a little bit, but a bigger part of me believes that California producers went overboard in their pursuit of oak and richness in their Chardonnays. As a result, many of the Chardonnays that I was used to drinking moved to more and more oak and richer, more buttery styles. Thankfully, I think that some California producers are finally starting to recognize that its not all about oak and ridiculously full body. A good Chardonnay needs some acidity and structure to balance things out.

Well that sure is a long lead in and a whole lot of talk about oak before we get to this Sebastiani Chardonnay from Sonoma County. Aged sur lies in French and Hungarian oak for 9 months, this wine gives you enough oak to satisfy those who like oaky Chardonnays without being so much that it completely overwhelms everything else. In your glass, you see a wine with a nice light straw color. The nose is dominated by apple with notes of pear, grapefruit and butterscotch. The palate sees more apple and definitely has a vanilla oak influence on the finish, but it is far from over the top. The wine is medium-full in body and pretty good overall, although I would like to see a little more acidity, but that may be getting a little picky for a wine that retails for $11.

Overall, this wine is a very solid value for the $11 price tag. It is a nice everyday wine that will go well with an everyday meal like chicken on the grill.

Elizabeth Spencer Napa Valley Chardonnay 2006

One of the great things about visiting Napa Valley is discovering some of the small, lesser known gems that seem to be scattered throughout the valley. On a visit to Napa a couple years ago I discovered Elizabeth Spencer in Rutherford which is a great little winery that produces small lots of a number of different wines each year. Their winemaker, Matthew Rorick, is a purist who believes that his job is simply to express the character of the fruit he has to work with, and as a result he produces some very fine food friendly wines. Their wines do have limited distribution, but your best bet with these is probably to buy them online from the winery at http://www.elizabethspencerwines.com/index.html

This 2006 Chardonnay is fermented on the lees in stainless steel barrels. It sees no oak at all, which is largely a result of Matthew Rorick's belief that the fruit is the focus. If you are a lover of heavily oaked California Chardonnays, then this is probably not the wine for you. My wife, who is a lover of new world Chardonnay was rather unimpressed by this wine due to the lack of oak. Medium-pale straw in color, this is a very nice looking wine in your glass. The nose brings pleasant aromas of apple and pineapple with a hint of citrus. On the palate you get green apple and pear with notes of lemon. The wine has wonderful acidity for a California Chardonnay, and is a little more Burgundian in style than Californian. The medium bodied mouthfeel of this wine makes it a very food friendly and versatile Chardonnay. It has very nice fruit, crisp acidity, and a nice medium bodied mouthfeel which results in great overall structure. It would go very well with a number of foods, but it would be perfect with some seared sea scallops or a broiled lobster tail.

As far as value goes, the $30 price tag is a little on the steep side, but when you compare it to White Burgundy rather than California Chardonnay, it is pretty much in line. If you join their wine club, you can get a 20% discount on all your orders, which brings the price down to $24. I wouldn't open this for any old meal, but if your having a tasty lobster tail or some succulent sea scallops then its well worth it for a pairing that will be perfect. Cheers!

Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully "La Martelle" 2007

It seems that the more I drink white Burgundy, the more I like it. My wife is still pretty firmly in the California camp for Chardonnay, but tonight's tasting is starting to turn her a little bit too. Personally I still like both, but with certain foods White Burgundy makes a much better pairing than California Chardonnay. Tonight we had grilled swordfish steaks with a lime avocado aioli. The Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully "La Martelle" made a very good pairing for this meal.

Rully is a village in the Cote Chalonnaise in Burgundy that is just south of the Cote de Beaune near Montrachet and Meursault. Vincent Dureuil is a young winemaker with a rising star who's family has winemaking roots going back to the 13th century. His 2007 Rully "La Martelle" had a pleasant light straw color in the glass with wonderful aromas of green apple and pear. There was also a subtle hint of vanilla and oak that rounded off the very nice bouquet. On the palate you got more of the same dominated by the fruit much more than the oak. Nice acidity and an excellent, long finish made for a very good wine that paired very well with the swordfish steak and the creamy avocado topping. At at price in the low $20s this was not an outstanding value, but well worth it for a great pairing when you consider the cost of swordfish steaks. An oaky, buttery California Chard just would not have worked with this meal.

My Visit to Rutherford in Napa Valley

Tuesday I had the pleasure of visiting some wineries and tasting rooms in Rutherford and Yountville after doing some business for my real job in the Bay Area. For this post I’m going to focus on Rutherford and then I will cover Yountville in a later post.

My first stop in Rutherford was a second visit to the tasting room at Elizabeth Spencer Wines. This is a great, simple little tasting room right on Rutherford Rd. across from the Rutherford Grill and Beaulieu Vineyard. Owned by partners Elizabeth Pressler and Spencer Graham, they are a small winery making very limited amounts of quite a few different wines. On this visit I tried eight different wines and there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. All the wines were made in a style that had very nice balance and would be very food friendly.

For the whites, they had a nice Sauvignon Blanc that had crisp citrus aromas and flavors without being too fruity. Nice acidity balanced out the fruit in this organically farmed and produced Sauvignon Blanc. I also tasted a 2007 Chardonnay, which was unoaked and very crisp with strong but nice acidity for a Chardonnay.

For red wines I tasted a number of excellent wines. They had a pleasant Merlot and Petite Sirah, but the Cabernets were the standouts. Their 2006 Crossroads Cuvee Cabernet was a wonderful example of a well balanced, food friendly Cabernet. Fruit was sourced from multiple locations in Napa Valley including Rutherford, Oakville, Howell Mountain, Pritchard Hill, and Mt. Veeder. Aromas of blackberry and cassis dominated the nose and you got much of the same on the palate. What was very interesting with this Cabernet is that the fruit was delicious but not overpowering. It had good acidity, decent tannins which should soften with a little time, and great overall structure. The 2006 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon was also excellent. This offering has fruit sourced from a single vineyard near the ridgeline of Howell Mountain in the northeast of Napa Valley. This mountain fruit produced a more fruit forward Cabernet that had great intensely dark fruit flavors of cassis and black plum. It had big tannins to back up the fruit and a wonderful finish where I picked up a hint of cola to go along with the fruit.

I should also note that Mark in the tasting room was friendly and extremely knowledgeable, and largely responsible for mapping out my itinerary for the rest of the day. Finally I will point out that although I did not spend any time in them, they have a nice garden, picnic area and tasting cottage that Mark showed me before I left. I will be sure to spend some time there in my next visit to the Napa Valley. This is a great winery that is a conveniently located and easy stop on just about any Napa Valley itinerary.

My next stop was Frog’s Leap Winery on Conn Creek Road in Rutherford. This was perhaps the most relaxing winery I’ve ever visited. I tasted wine while sitting on a covered porch near a wildflower garden listening to birds chirping and roosters crowing. They poured all four wines at once to taste at your leisure and served a cheese, nut, and fruit plate to go with it. The whole experience changed the gears of my day from run, run, run, to sit back, relax and smell the roses – literally. They did have a nice rose garden , but I must confess I did not actually smell them. I was much more interested in smelling their wines.

The wines and winery at Frog’s Leap are a little bit different than what you typically see or taste. They practice dry, organic, and sustainable farming, and they built the first LEED certified tasting room and administrative center in the industry. They also run their operation on all solar energy. The wines are also a little bit different than the norm in that they are extremely well balanced and much lower alcohol than many other California wines. They even have a Zinfandel that is only 13.4% alcohol.

All the wines I tasted were very good, but the standouts for me were the 2007 Zinfandel and the 2007 Chardonnay. The Zinfandel as I previously stated has a remarkably low alcohol percentage in a time where its no longer unusual to see Zinfandel’s well over 15%. Slightly lighter in color than most Zins, it had sweet cherry aromas with some subtle spice. In your mouth you get a pleasant mouthfeel with none of the syrupy or raisiny qualities that plague so many Zinfandels these days. Flavors of cherry and wild berry along with some spice are balanced by acidity and a bit of earthiness. This is actually a Zin with structure that can be enjoyed with food. Highly recommended!

The 2007 Chardonnay also showed excellent balance and structure. Made with Carneros fruit in 78% new and neutral oak and 22% stainless steel, this was a wonderful Chardonnay. On the nose and the palate you get nice but subtle fruit flavors and a subtle hint of oak, but what really set this apart is the crisp acidity and minerality that it exhibits. This is not your typical oaky and buttery California style Chardonnay. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I was drinking white Burgundy.

Well that about sums up my visit to Rutherford. Soon I will be posting the details of my visit to some tasting rooms in Yountville. Thanks for reading!

Frei Brothers Reserve Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2007

Let me start by saying that I'm pretty rare among wine lovers in that I like both New World and Old World Chardonnay. Many wine drinkers strongly prefer to have lighter bodied, less fruity, and more acidic Chardonnays with a crisp minerality to them - they are the Old World camp who love White Burgundies. Others are fans of oak, oak, oak, some more oak, some fruit and a full body. My wife is firmly in that camp with no plans on leaving. She loves rich, oaky, California Chardonnay. I happen to think both styles can be great when done right and a lot depends on what I want to eat with my Chardonnay if anything. Having said all that, if you are a fan of New World style Chardonnays, you will love the Frei Brothers Reserve Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley AVA of Sonoma County.

The wine is filled with aromas of oak & vanilla with some butterscotch and pear. In your mouth you can instantly feel that this is classic California Chardonnay. Flavors of pear and nectarine are front and center with the vanilla and spice from the toasted oak. The mouthfeel is rich and buttery. There is also a pleasantly surprising acidity to this wine that provides a little more structure than some California Chardonnays that are pure fruit and oak. If you like the rich, oaky California style, then you will love this wine. It is a well done Russian River Valley Chardonnay.

Although there are plenty of people out there who disagree with me, I happen to love New World Chardonnay with marinated grilled chicken or buttery seafood. I also enjoy it on its own. I enjoyed this bottle with some sauteed scallops with lime-butter sauce. Delicious! At under $15/bottle its also a decent value.