Every Saturday, I do a tasting/seminar for the staff at a store I consult for.
California Whites was todays seminar theme, and this is one that can cause me to worry if it will come off well. Cause you know the white wines of California can sometimes be high in alcohol and low in acidity...meaning, clunk. But this line-up offered some interesting options. Two SB's, two Chards, a Sparkler and a wacko blend - oh yeah a two blinds. All pretty interesting.
The Sauv Blancs were Matanzas Creek (at one time in the 1990's one of Cals best) and Grgich Hills Fume Blanc.
Mantanzas Creek Vineyards:
Matanzas Creek was bought by Jess Jackson in the mid 1990's and went though a bit of a slump and some identity complexity issues. I've visited the winery twice, once under the original owners - the McKivers (sp?) and then in 2003 under the Jess's control. In 2003 I tasted many different wines and the current releases at the time were, um indifferent? But then the winemaker brought me to the cellar and I tasted from both the barrel and the tank and I was greatly impressed with both the Merlot (which the McKivers had also made a rep with), the Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc.
The Sauvignon Blanc I tasted today had aromas of ripe grapefruit, a touch of green apple, some ripe citrus and that musky note of...hmm sweaty sex or wet dog or a musky kind of perfume but in a good way - well to me anyway. That musky character comes from the 17% of the Musque Clone of Sauvignon Blanc, blended into the wine. The palate is crisp but rich with a lingering finish and just a hint of alcohol burn in the finish. Yeah it's around 14% alcohol but the acidity balances that nicely.
OK, now who remembers the winemaker for the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay (well for that matter all the 1973 Montelena wines)? Why is that a worthy question you might wonder...well there was a very famous tasting in Paris in 1976, it was done blind with the greatest French wines and the American upstarts. Well the 1973 Chateau Montelena beat out comparable wines from Montrachet, Burgundy (considered the greatest site for Chardonnay in the world - oh and the most expensive vineyard land too). The Chardonnay that took 1st place was the 1973 Montelena, which was made by a Croatian name Mike Grgich. That's right, Mike then went on from that success to start his own winery, and today along with Montelena, Forman and a couple of others makes Napa Valley's finest white wines.
Grgich Hills 2005 Fume Blanc, this wine has all the bright, crisp notes of a classic Sauvignon Blanc with a touch of roundness from maybe some old oak treatment. Makes sense anyway as Miljenko “Mike” Grgich uses a bit of new oak for his Chardonnay and why not use that expensive oak once of twice more before making them into planters or displays at a restaurant or store. The wine has a Pouilly-Fume character to it, still grassy and citrusy but with a touch of roundness that is more Pouilly like than Sancerre like. Long and classy in the finish and palate - it's not cheap though, but neither is fine Pouilly-Fume or even Sancerre.
The Chardonnay was Hartford Court Three Jacks Vineyard in Russian River Valley. This wine is not produced anymore as the Hartford program has changed and they no longer use purchased fruit for their wines. Three Jacks is the name Hartford used for the Duttons J-L Ranch. The wine is not at all my style, yet very well made, it is a big, rich, tropical Chardonnay with a good dose of high quality oak (you know the French kind ~$900 a barrel), though the wine is creamy and lush the acidity does actually hang in there.
This is a picture of a vineyard near to the Duttons properties in Russian River Valley
After these wines we had two blind wines, they both stumped me and for that matter everyone else as they were not typical. I new they were both new world wines but the Viognier had too much zing and zip to be such and the Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier blend tasted like Semillon, and many agreed with me. While the Calera Viognier remained atypical with air, the Niebaum-Coppola Blancaneaux actually did start to bring out the Marzipan and floral components found in Marsanne and Viognier and really wasn't a bad wine, but no way for a price tag of close to $45 a bottle. And Josh Jensens reds are more interesting for me than his whites and for close to $40 for the Calera Viognier, I can think of more interesting wines to spend that kind of dough on.
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