A New Zin Tradition

John On Wine – A New Zin Tradition

Originally published in the Ukiah Daily Journal on Thursday, August 28, 2014

John Cesano of John On Wine

On a sunny Saturday in August, I spent some time in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley at the ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Simply Summer Celebration, an inaugural event billed as “a new Zin tradition.”

A large white tent was set up in the center of Ridge Vineyards’ Lytton West Vineyard and over 125 Zinfandels were poured by the 50 wineries set up underneath the canopy, with Petaluma’s Pizza Politana set up just outside the tent and serving wood-fired artisan pizzas and a mixed green salad for the over 400 assembled wine lovers that day.

I love Zinfandel, but it can be a pretty big varietal, often tending toward high alcohol and massive dense fruit jam bomb flavors. On a hot day, outside, with plenty of sun, surrounded by other tasters, I was pleased to be writing for the Ukiah Daily Journal, as I could focus on the few wines made from Mendocino grapes and sensibly limit my tastes.

First up, I tasted the wine that won the John Parducci Best of Show Red Wine award at the recent 2014 Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition, the 2012 Artezin Wines Zinfandel, Mendocino, $17. Pouring it was winemaker Randle Johnson.

Artezin is a Napa winery, part of The Hess Collection, and the grapes for this top medal winning Zinfandel come from all over inland Mendo, including from Laviletta Vineyard on Mill Creek Road in Talmage, Seebass Family Vineyard and Paul Dolan’s Dark Horse Ranch on Old River Road near Talmage, Brown Vineyard in Redwood Valley, and Eddie Graziano’s Rovera Ranch near Calpella, among several others.

The wine was lush, showing clear berry, cherry, spice and herb notes up front, leading to red and purple fruit, including pluots. There is a lot happening in this wine, well integrated, marked by balance and finesse. 14.5% alcohol but doesn’t drink hot, feels like 13.9%.

Randle asked about the Mendocino Wine Competition, and if his award meant that the judges chose it above the best Cabernet Sauvignon, best Syrah, best Petite Sirah, best Carignane, over the best of all of Mendocino County’s red wine varieties, and not just above all of Mendocino County’s Zinfandels – which would be an impressive feat by itself. I told Randle that, yes, his Zinfandel was chosen best of all red wines entered into competition. Randle responded, “this award means more to me than a 95 in Wine Spectator.”

Josh Wagner, an employee at one of Kendall Jackson’s other wine concerns, poured three wines for Edmeades of Philo, between Boonville and Navarro, in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley. I tasted a 2012 Edmeades Zinfandel, Mendocino, $21, a blend of Zin, Petite Sirah, and Syrah, a decent weight wine at 14.7% alc but a little soft in the mouth, without discernable oomph. Next, Josh poured the 2012 Edmeades Zinfandel, Perli Vineyard, $31, a Zin, Merlot & Syrah blend, that tasted like a walk through the black pepper forest, with oak, anise, and plummy meaty raspberry. Finally, I tasted the 100% Zinfandel offering from Edmeades, a 2011 Shamrock Vineyard, with fruit taken at 2,800 feet in elevation. Lighter mouth feel than the Perli, but not dismissible at all. Plenty of flavors, and a wine that begs to be paired with food, where herbs and fruit would pop.

Carol Shelton poured her eponymous wines, and I tasted her 2012 Carol Shelton Wines Wild Thing Old Vines Zinfandel, Mendocino, $19. Carol’s Zinfandel showed brambly bright raspberry and darker blackberry, with herb and black pepper. I worked with Carol from 1993 to 2001, and have an affinity for her wines. Not too big at 14.5%, but certainly not too light. This would be a Goldilocks’ choice wine. 83% Zinfandel , 15% Carignane , and 2% Petite Sirah; the 92% of grapes coming from Mendocino County are from the Cox Vineyard, just north of Ukiah.

Not Mendocino County, but close, I tasted a wine from Chacewater Wine from over in neighboring Lake County’s Kelseyville. The 2012 Chacewater Zin, Sierra Foothills, $20, ran 14.5% alc and had dusty rhubarb, cherry, and oak notes throughout.

Bonus non-Mendo Zinfandel tastes: I tasted the 2012 Barefoot Cellars Zinfandel, Lodi, $7, because winemaker Jennifer Wall had done such a good job with social media marketing, inviting those who ZAP indicated would be attending to come and taste her wines. The Barefoot Zinfandel had smoky, woody, darker color and flavors without being heavy, with a dominant dark strawberry jam note.

Beltane Ranch winemaker Kevin Holt poured their inaugural 2012 Beltane Ranch Estate Zin, $44. I visited Beltane Ranch in the Sonoma Valley’s Glen Ellen with my friend Serena Alexi earlier this year. A blend of Zin, Alicante Bouschet, Carignane and Petite Sirah, the wine drank young, with intense flavors of black raspberry jam, herb, and oak supporting the fruit in this 15.5% Alc wine.

I tasted the 2012 Ridge Lytton Springs, as a good guest should always taste the host’s wine. At just 70% Zinfandel with 21% Petite Sirah, 6% Carignane, and 3% Mourvedre, this wine is technically not a Zinfandel, although it is sufficiently Zinny to me and, if grown and made one county north, could be called a Coro. 14.4% in alc and loaded with flavor, plenty of brambly ripe berry and a little firm. This is a wine that can lie down and improve with cellaring.

I recognized plenty of other wine writers, and saw that some of my favorite other Zinfandel producers were pouring, but as the attendance grew to over 400, counting winemakers, I decided to call it a day, and headed home to relax in an air conditioned room. That night, I baked spicy chicken wings and paired them with the 2012 Artezin Zinfandel, the Mendo Best of Show red, and that pairing may have best defined a simply summer celebration and new Zin tradition, as it was perfect.

Here’s a link to the Zin friendly baked chicken wing recipe.

 

Reserve Wine & Food Pairing at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center near Fulton, at the northwest edge of Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County.

I work for a winery that produces 3,000 cases of wine each year, all the varietals unblended, all the grapes from one organically grown vineyard. Our Chardonnay is from great grapes, and we let them shine, fermenting and holding the juice in stainless steel, and foregoing secondary, malolactic, fermentation.

Kendall-Jackson is the opposite of the winery I work for in so many way. First, it is a giant, a Goliath, no longer merely a single winery entity, but an empire made up of many successful wineries, about three dozen, bought up by the late wine industry icon Jess Jackson.

Looking at Kendall-Jackson as a stand alone winery, ignoring Matanzas Creek, Murphy-Goode, and the other wineries within it’s domain, Kendall-Jackson produces about 5 million cases of wine each year. The most popular Kendall-Jackson wine sold is their Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay, accounting for roughly 20% of their wine quantity sold, or 1,000,000 cases each year.

Stylistically, this Chardonnay is significantly oaked. The wine also undergoes malolactic fermentation; a secondary fermentation that changes malic acid, the green apple flavor notes often found in the juice of Chardonnay grapes, and converts it to lactic acid, cream or butter notes that do not exist in Chardonnay grapes. It is often suggested that this wine packs a sugar punch, either from adding back sugar directly or in the form of added grape juice concentrate.

Kendall-Jackson has a Chardonnay with dominant oak, toast, cream and vanilla notes, buttery, smooth, sweet, and round. It is worth noting that none of these are notes or attributes that come from the Chardonnay grape, all are winemaking manipulations.

There are many in the wine industry who suggest privately that good grapes don’t need such manipulations, winemaking tricks, and that Kendall-Jackson’s style spawned a host of heavily manipulated cheap wine imitators, notably Two Buck Chuck, similarly producing wines without variety correctness, vintage variations, or sense of place.

There are others who would characterize such assertions as “sour grapes.”

It could easily be argued that most consumers of wine prefer the complete predictability, the absolute consistency, that a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay offers; that sameness of experience being preferable to the unpredictability of a single vineyard designate wine, a wine held in stainless steel without malolactic fermentation, a wine showing different fruit notes year to year, as terroir – the interplay of land, weather, and grape within a vintage – and the changes that brings to the wine, becomes a factor in the final bottled product.

In addition to the Vintner’s Reserve wines, sourcing grapes from throughout California, making consistent wines using every tool at the winemaker’s disposal, Kendall-Jackson makes smaller lot wines, many from single vineyards, and many with much greater varietal character and vintage variation.

Notably, many of these smaller lot Grand Reserve and Highland Estates series vineyard designate wines garner 90 plus ratings from Robert Parker Jr in his Wine Advocate, Steve Heimoff in Wine Enthusiast, and Charlie Olken in the Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wines. Whether that is owing to making wines to Parker’s palate, jammy fruit bombs, heavily oaken, tannin laden, not shy with alcohol percentage, or whether the wines made coincidentally in this style happen to be appealing to Parker is beside the point; what matters for Kendall-Jackson is that, in addition to making consumer friendly Chardonnay, they are able to make wines that capture critical claim from the country’s top wine scorers.

The folks at the Wine Center were uniformly friendly, cheerful, informed, and justifiably proud of their wines. They have heard the criticisms about overly consistent wines, and understandably are not overly concerned. What some see as a fault, is just as easily seen as an enviable result of winemaking choices, reinforced by spectacular sales success.

Again, when your winery sells a million cases of just one Chardonnay, five million cases overall, owns almost three dozen other wineries, and enjoys critical acclaim for the small lot, vineyard designate, hand crafted wines released; well, it becomes pretty easy to let small criticisms roll off your back.

For my visit to the Wine Center, rather than a simple tasting of wines, I enjoyed the Reserve Wine & Food Pairing tasting. Regularly $25, I tasted complimentarily.  A definite benefit of being a hugely successful wine enterprise, Kendall-Jackson employs professionally trained, very skilled chefs creating seasonal expressions using the bounty of their own on-premises culinary gardens to pair with “small-production, limited release wines.”

Chef Matthew Lowe delivered each food course, describing the food, the wines, and how they pair well.

Here is the tasting menu from my visit:

2009 Grand Reserve Sauvignon Blanc $20 – Grilled Estate Baby Fava Bean Pods

2008 Jackson Hills Chardonnay $25 – English Pea Soup

2006 Highland Estates Seco Highlands Pinot Noir $35 – Buckwheat Crepe with Smoked Ham Hocks and Bellwether Farms Carmody Cheese

2006 Highland Estates Alisos Hills Syrah $35 – Sweet Tea Brined Niman Ranch Pork Belly Slider with Syrah BBQ Sauce

2005 Highlands Estates Trace Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon $70 – Lamb Kefta with Pomegranate Molasses

2008 Late Harvest Riesling 375 ml $25 – Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Strawberry Gelle and Icebox Cookie

2006 Late Harvest Chardonnay 375 ml $25 – Mama Frischkorn’s Caramel Corn

First came the fava bean pods and English pea soup. I know most people would write about the wine, but these two taste treats were nothing short of brilliant. Regularly, fava beans need to be shucked then peeled before preparing, but these little pods were just babies, tender, and completely edible. Grilled with just a little sea salt and lemon juice, they paired perfectly and played off the lemon and grassy notes of the Sauvignon Blanc.

The English pea soup was cold, a chilled soup made from tender spring peas, topped with a couple of drops of olive oil. The oil allowed for a smart pairing with the buttery styled Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. The chilled soup was the most delicious dish, perfect, flavorful, amazing.

Up next came the Buckwheat Crepe, Slider, and Lamb Kefta. Chef Lowe also brought out a glass of the 2006 Highland Estates Taylor Peak Merlot $40 and I tasted the foods with the four reds, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The earthiness of buckwheat paired nicely with the Pinot Noir. Pork Belly anything is always welcome, and this slider was delicious with both the Syrah and the Merlot. The Merlot was pretty tasty, big and rich, a Cab lover’s Merlot.

The Cabernet Sauvignon was a food, in and of itself. Bigger than the lamb, this may have been the least successful pairing. Both were delicious separately, but they didn’t really elevate each other like some of the day’s other pairings.

Late Harvest wine is not the first wine I reach for, but both the Riesling and Chardonnay were delightful, especially paired with the fantastic buttermilk panna cotta with strawberry gelee. The caramel corn was a fun and pretension busting snack, not really my favorite, but perfectly made.

The wines were all good, some were great, all were worth tasting. Coming from a very small production winery, managing a tiny tasting room, made me appreciate what Jess Jackson achieved with Kendall-Jackson:  palatial manor house set on 120 acre garden and vineyard estate, an enormous tasting salon, a team of on-site chefs, enormously successful wines by any definition, industry changing embrace of social media marketing, both a dedication to growing awareness of Sonoma County and it’s wines and a regional outreach beyond Sonoma County, empire.

I had a really enjoyable time at the Wine Center, I recommend a visit, and further I recommend taking advantage of the professional chefs on property; spend the $25 for the constantly evolving Reserve Wine & Food Pairings tasting (one wine and four of the seven food creations have changed since my recent tasting), your experience will be unrushed and top flight – mine was.

 

Taste 170 award winning Mendocino County wines from 2-5pm on Saturday Feb 19 in San Francisco

Wine writers usually write about wineries and winemakers, tasting rooms and wines, but far too often don’t give full credit to the vineyards, winegrape caretakers, and the land the grapes grow on that shape the wines we enjoy.

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is a pretty big deal in the world of wine competitions. This year, this largest wine competition of American wines saw over 5,000 wines entered into competition from 23 US states. Of course, most of the wines came from California, and many of the wines entered were made with grapes grown in Mendocino County grapes.

All of the wines awarded medals – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Double (unanimous) Gold, Best of Class (best of varietal, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc.), and Sweepstakes (Best red, white, bubbly, dessert, etc. of Competition) – will be poured for the public at the SFCWC Public Tasting at the Festival Pavilion at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on Saturday, February 19, 2011 from 2:00pm – 5:00pm.

I have pulled the 170 wines being poured, made from Mendocino County grapes, by wineries in and out of Mendocino County, so that you can try a Terroir tasting. By planning ahead, preparing a tasting list of Mendocino County wines, there is the opportunity to taste unique varietal characteristics found in Mendocino County’s wines, what makes Chardonnay made from Manchester Ridge grapes so good or how Barbera, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah each find a fullness of expression when grown in Mendocino County. The opportunity to explore and learn the profile of award winning Anderson Valley Pinot Noir or Mendocino Zinfandel by tasting several award winning examples in one place is rare, but well worth the effort – especially when the opportunity presents itself so richly.

I will visit wineries, mostly in Mendocino County, this year and write about the wines they make. I will have less opportunity to write about vineyards, although the sustainable, organic, and biodynamic green-ness of Mendocino County grape growing allows for compelling stories. The individual appellation promotional efforts for the Anderson Valley, Hopland, Redwood Valley, Ukiah, and the overarching Mendocino Winegrape and Wine Commission will focus their efforts on promotion of the county’s wineries, but not vineyards – it is a tougher story to tell effectively.

The results of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, 170 award winning wines identified as being made from grapes harvested in Mendocino County – plus countless more wines improved by the addition of Mendocino County grapes in wines labelled as coming from North Coast or California – and having a tasting list of of those 170 medal winning Mendocino County wines, allows tasters to experience the land of the county, the area within the county, individual vineyards, as much or more than tasting the winemaker’s art or the winery style imprint.

Regularly, I would suggest folks throughout the San Francisco bay area come north up highway 101 to Mendocino County to visit our vineyards and wineries, taste our wines and olive oils,  join our wine clubs, stay overnight in our lodgings, dine in our restaurants, visit more wineries, a farmer’s market, garden, museum, or hot springs, maybe ride on the Skunk Train, drive through redwood forests, visit our wild coast, and at the end of your visit, return home with a trunk full of delicious Mendocino County bounty.

Saturday, February 19, instead, I would urge you to visit San Francisco’s Fort Mason, and take part in your own exploration of Mendocino County wines at the Public Tasting of SFVWC medal winners.

This list is a celebration of Mendocino County’s Winegrape growers, congratulations on having your excellence recognized and awarded:

39 North Wine Company 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County $30 SILVER

39 North Wine Company 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County $30 SILVER

Albertina Wine Cellars 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Zamarzly Family Vineyards $20 GOLD

Amorosa Bella NV Dry Sparkling Brut Mendocino County Amorosa Balla $30 BRONZE

Artevino 2009 Chardonnay Yorkville Highlands Mendocino County $30 GOLD

Artezin Wines 2009 Zinfandel Mendocino County $18 SILVER

Artezin Wines 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County $25 BRONZE

Balance by Heath Dolan 2007 Red Field Blend Mendocino $24 SILVER

Barra of Mendocino 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino $20 SILVER

Barra of Mendocino 2006 Sangiovese Mendocino $18 BRONZE

Baxter 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Run Dog Vineyard $45 SILVER

Baxter 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Toulouse Vineyard $45 SILVER

Baxter 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino Oppenlander Vineyard $60 DOUBLE GOLD

Baxter 2006 Carignane Mendocino Caballo Blanco $32 SILVER

Black Goose Wines 2006 Zinfandel Mendocino County Bartoloma Vineyards $26 BRONZE

Bliss Family Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino Estate Bottled $10 SILVER

Bliss Family Vineyards 2009 Merlot Mendocino Estate Bottled $10 SILVER

Bliss Family Vineyards 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Estate Bottled $10 SILVER

Blooms Winery on Whidbey 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County Blooms Vineyard $30 SILVER

Bonterra Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino County Bonterra $14 SILVER

Bonterra Vineyards NV White Table Blend Mendocino County Bonterra $10 SILVER

Bonterra Vineyards 2009 Rosé Mendocino Bonterra $14 DOUBLE GOLD

Bonterra Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir Mendocino County Bonterra $20 GOLD

Bonterra Vineyards 2008 Zinfandel Mendocino County Bonterra $16 GOLD

Bonterra Vineyards 2008 Merlot Mendocino County Bonterra $16 SILVER

Bonterra Vineyards 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Bonterra $16 SILVER

Bonterra Vineyards NV Red Table Blend Mendocino County Bonterra $10 GOLD

Brutocao 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino Feliz Vineyard Estate Bottled $14 BRONZE

Brutocao 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino Bliss Vineyard Estate Bottled $16 SILVER

Brutocao 2008 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Estate Bottled $28 BRONZE

Brutocao 2007 Quadriga Mendocino Hopland Ranch Estate Bottled $24 SILVER

Brutocao 2007 Merlot Mendocino Bliss Vineyard Estate Bottled $20 SILVER

Brutocao 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Hopland Ranch Estate Bottled $22 GOLD

Cahill Winery 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Cole Ranch $20 BRONZE

Calstar Cellars 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino Ridge Manchester Ridge $35 BEST OF CLASS

Calstar Cellars 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Londer Estate $50 BRONZE

Cameron Hughes Wine 2007 Syrah Mendocino County Yorkville Highlands $12 GOLD

Carol Shelton Wines 2007 Zinfandel Mendocino County Cox Vineyard $24 BRONZE

Castle Rock Winery 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County $10 SILVER

Claudia Springs Winery 2009 Viognier Redwood Valley Lolonis Vineyard $24 SILVER

Claudia Springs Winery 2009 Pinot Gris Anderson Valley Klindt Vineyard $18 BRONZE

Claudia Springs Winery 2007 Zinfandel Mendocino $24 SILVER

DeLoach Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir Redwood Valley Masut $45 BRONZE

Edmeades 2008 Zinfandel Mendocino County $18 BRONZE

Esterlina 2009 Riesling Cole Ranch $20 SILVER

Esterlina 2009 White Dessert Cole Ranch $28 BRONZE

Foursight Wines 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Anderson Valley Charles Vineyard $20 SILVER

Foursight Wines 2009 Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley $20 GOLD

Foursight Wines 2008 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Charles Vineyard Zero New Oak $25 BRONZE

Foursight Wines 2008 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley All In Charles Vineyard $35 BRONZE

Frey Vineyards Ltd 2009 Chardonnay Redwood Valley Biodynamic $14 BRONZE

Frey Vineyards Ltd 2009 Sangiovese Mendocino Organic $13 BRONZE

Frey Vineyards Ltd 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Organic $15 SILVER

Girasole Vineyards 2009 Merlot Mendocino $13 SILVER

Girasole Vineyards 2009 Hybrid Red Mendocino $13 GOLD

Greenwood Ridge Vineyards 2008 White riesling Mendocino Ridge Estate Bottled $18 SILVER

Handley Cellars 2009 Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley $18 SILVER

Handley Cellars 2009 Pinot Gris Anderson Valley $18 SILVER

Handley Cellars 2008 Pinot Noir Mendocino County $25 SILVER

Handley Cellars 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino $25 BRONZE

Handley Cellars 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley $30 GOLD

Harmonique 2006 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley The Noble One $50 SILVER

Harmonique 2006 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Elegance $53 SILVER

Harmonique 2006 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Delicace $55 SILVER

Harmonique 2006 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Oppenlander $55 SILVER

Heron Wines 2009 Cabernet sauvignon Mendocino $14 BRONZE

Husch Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino $14 BRONZE

Husch Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino Renegade $18 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Anderson Valley Vine One $18 BRONZE

Husch Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino $15 BRONZE

Husch Vineyards 2008 Chardonnay Mendocino Special Reserve $25 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2009 Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley $14 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2009 Muscat Canelli Mendocino $15 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Knoll $38 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Reserve $35 GOLD

Husch Vineyards 2009 Zinfandel Mendocino Old Vines $25 GOLD

Husch Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino $21 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Reserve $35 SILVER

Husch Vineyards 2009 Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley $20 SILVER

J. Keverson 2007 Sangiovese Mendocino $20 GOLD

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards 2009 Barbera Mendocino County $17 BEST OF CLASS

Jaxon Keys Winery 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino $15 GOLD

Jazz Cellars 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino Eaglepoint Ranch Vineyard $40 SILVER

JK Estates 2008 Pinot Noir Mendocino $13 SILVER

Kendall-Jackson 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino Grand Reserve $20 SILVER

Kimmel Vineyards 2008 Chardonnay Potter Valley Kimmel Vineyards $32 SILVER

Kimmel Vineyards 2007 Merlot Mendocino Kimmel Vineyards $38 SILVER

La Follette Wines 2008 Chardonnay Mendocino Ridge Manchester Ridge $48 SILVER

Le Vin Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County Le Vin Vineyards $36 BRONZE

Ledson Winery & Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley $60 SILVER

Martella Wine 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino Heart Arrow Ranch $35 SILVER

Martella Wine 2007 Cabernet sauvignon Mendocino Heart Arrow Ranch $55 BRONZE

Maysie Cellars Rosé of Sangiovese Mendocino County $13 SILVER

McFadden Vineyard NV Brut Potter Valley McFadden Vineyard $25 SILVER

McFadden Vineyard 2009 Gewurtztraminer Potter Valley McFadden Vineyard $15 BRONZE

McFadden Vineyard 2008 Pinot Gris Valley McFadden Vineyard $15 BRONZE

McFadden Vineyard 2007 Zinfandel Potter Valley McFadden Vineyard $19 SILVER

McNab Ridge Winery 2009 Roussanne Mendocino Shadow Brook Farms $15 SILVER

McNab Ridge Winery 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino $18 BRONZE

McNab Ridge Winery 2009 Pinotage Mendocino Napoli Estate $20 SILVER

Mendielle Vertu 2007 Merlot Mendocino Destination Valley Vineyard $27 SILVER

Meyer Family Cellars 2009 Chardonnay Anderson Valley $22 BRONZE

Meyer Family Cellars 2006 Syrah Yorkville Highlands $28 BRONZE

Milano Family Winery 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino Queirolo Vineyard $29 BRONZE

Milano Family Winery 2006 Echo Bordeaux Blend Mendocino Rells Echo Vineyard $37 SILVER

Muscardini Cellars 2009 Barbera Redway Valley Pauli Ranch $38 SILVER

Naughty Boy 2009 Chardonnay Potter Valley Thornton Ranch $13 GOLD

Naughty Boy 2007 Pinot Noir Potter Valley NB Vineyard $24 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino Cuvee 128 $18 BEST OF CLASS

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino  $13 BRONZE

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Anderson Valley Premiere Reserve $25 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley Estate Bottled  $19 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Muscat Blanc Anderson Valley $19 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Pinot Gris Anderson Valley $19 GOLD

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir Mendocino $19 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Methode a l’Ancienne $29 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Zinfandel Mendocino $19 GOLD

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Zinfandel Mendocino Old Vine $25 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Syrah Mendocino $25 BEST OF CLASS

Navarro Vineyards 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino $35 SILVER

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Navarrouge Mendocino $14 BRONZE

Navarro Vineyards 2009 Late Harvest Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley $35 SILVER

Oak Cliff Cellars 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino County $35 SILVER

Oak Cliff Cellars 2008 Zinfandel Mendocino County Curtis Ranch $28 BRONZE

Parducci Wine Cellars 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County $11 GOLD

Parducci Wine Cellars 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino County $11 GOLD

Parducci Wine Cellars 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County $11 GOLD

Parducci Wine Cellars 2009 Sustainable White Mendocino County $11 BRONZE

Parducci Wine Cellars 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County $11 BRONZE

Parducci Wine Cellars 2007 Petite Sirah (True Grit) Mendocino $30 SILVER

Parducci Wine Cellars 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County $11 BRONZE

Patianna 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino Estate Grown Organic Grapes $16 GOLD

Patianna 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino Estate Grown Organic Grapes $16 BRONZE

Patianna 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino Made With Organic Grapes $20 BRONZE

Paul Dolan Vineyards 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Mendocino County $18 GOLD

Paul Dolan Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino County $18 BRONZE

Paul Dolan Vineyards 2007 Pinot Noir Mendocino County $30 SILVER

Paul Dolan Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County $25 SILVER

Phillips Hill 2009 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Wiley $40 BRONZE

Philo Ridge Vineyards 2009 Gewurtztraminer Anderson Valley Ferrington Vineyards $18 BRONZE

Philo Ridge Vineyards 2009 Pinot Gris Anderson Valley Klindt Vineyards $18 BRONZE

Philo Ridge Vineyards 2007 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley $24 GOLD

Rock Wall Wine Co 2009 Viognier Mendocino $18 SILVER

Rock Wall Wine Co 2008 Petite Sirah Mendocino $22 BRONZE

Rosa D’Oro Vineyards 2009 Tocai Friulano Mendocino County $16 BRONZE

Route 128 Winery 2007 Syrah Torkville Highlands Opatz Family $24 SILVER

Scharffenberger Cellars NV Brut Mendocino $19 SILVER

Stephen & Walker 2009 Late Harvest Chardonnay Mendocino Ridge $65 BRONZE

Stonehedge Winery 2007 Malbec Mendocino Terroir select $15 SILVER

Terra Savia 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino $14 DOUBLE GOLD

Terra Savia 2009 Chardonnay Mendocino Sanel Valley Vineyard Reserve $18 SILVER

Terra Savia 2009 Meritage Mendocino Sanel Valley Vineyards $18 BRONZE

Trinitas Cellars 2007 Zinfandel Mendocino JMR & Comrado Old Vine $25 GOLD

Trinitas Cellars 2007 Rhone Cuvee Mendocino JMR & Comrado Old Vine $20 GOLD

Truett Hurst Winery 2009 Rhone Blend Mendocino Dark Horse $40 SILVER

VJB Vineyards & Cellars 2009 Tocai Friulano Mendocino County $22 GOLD

Volante Vineyards 2006 Petite Sirah Redwood Valley Thompson Vineyards $18 BRONZE

Williamson Wines 2009 Viognier Mendocino County Frolic $34 SILVER

Willowbrook Cellars 2008 Chardonnay Mendocino Ridge Manchester Ridge $34 DOUBLE GOLD

Windsor Vineyards 2007 Petite Sirah Mendocino County $10 SILVER

Windsor Vineyards 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County $18 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Yorkville Highlands Randle Hill $17 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2009 Eleanor of Aquitaine Yorkville Highlands Randle Hill $25 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2009 Semillon Yorkville Highlands Randle Hill $20 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Yorkville Highlands Rennie Vineyard $28 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2008 Cabernet Franc Yorkville Highlands Rennie Vineyard $25 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2008 Petit Perdot Yorkville Highlands Rennie Vineyard $28 SILVER

Yorkville Cellars 2008 Hi-Roller Red Mendocino County $18 SILVER

Zina Hyde Cunningham 2009 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley Reserve $60 SILVER

 

The era of ABC, Anything But Chardonnay, is well over.

About a decade ago, there was a very active ABC movement among the wine community. ABC stands for Anything But Chardonnay.

The country was awash in rivers of Chardonnay, it was being ordered in bars and restaurants by the glass and bottle in amazing volumes.

The Chardonnay grape produces a juice that, when fermented, yields wine notes of crisp green apple and possible tropical notes like pineapple if cold fermented. Wine made from Chardonnay can seem sour in its tartness.

A secondary fermentation, malolactic fermentation, can transform malic acid notes of tart green apple to lactic acid notes of butter and cream.

Another winemaking method of changing Chardonnay’s flavors is to age the wine in oak barrels instead of holding the juice in stainless steel tanks. The oak barrel can impart notes of oak, toast, clove, caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla on the Chardonnay. Additional, more intense oak flavors are achieved when the Chardonnay is fermented, not just aged, in oak.

I think Kendall-Jackson is largely responsible for the enormous increase in Chardonnay’s popularity.

Kendall-Jackson sourced Chardonnay grapes from all over California, and ran all of the juice through malolactic and held the wine in oak barrels. The result was a buttery wine of oak, toast, cream and vanilla. Kendall-Jackson sold so much wine that other wineries were making Kendal-Jackson Chardonnay through custom crush relationships, as much as 250,000 cases of a label at a time.

People came to expect all Chardonnays to taste of butter, toast, cream, and vanilla.  Soon, other wineries were hiding the varietal character of Chardonnay, the unique fruit notes, by increasing their use of malolactic fermentation and oak aging.

There was a time when all Chardonnays were boringly the same. Bottles of oak and butter, the fruit nearly gone.

It was said that if you put a rock through malolactic fermentation, held it in oak, and slapped a Kendall-Jackson label on it, it would taste of oak, toast, cream, and vanilla, with very little fruit, and someone would put it in their mouth to find out.

Thus was born the ABC crowd. Anything But Chardonnay, give me something that tastes like grape, varietally correct, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Marsanne, Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Viognier, Pinot Gris, anything still held in stainless, anything with fruit notes please.

If you have seen the incredible wine movie Sideways, you heard Miles, the main character, pronounce, “If anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking any fucking Merlot.”

Like Chardonnay, Merlot is often boring, bland, uninteresting, yet easy to drink with very little varietal character getting in the way. Miles could just as easily have declared, “I am not drinking any fucking Chardonnay,” but it wouldn’t make much sense for Miles to visit Santa Barbara, a big grower of Chardonnay, and complain about the varietal.

Does this mean that I never drink Chardonnay, or that I recommend that you don’t?

No.

The great news is that in the last decade, wineries have decided that malolactic fermentation and oak aging are winemaker tools, but they don’t have to be used fully, or at all, with every Chardonnay.

Chardonnay, which was nearly uniformly boring as everyone chased Kendall-Jackson’s style because of Kendal-Jackson’s sales, is now an exciting wine to taste.

There are now wineries choosing to forego malolactic fermentation with their Chardonnay, and have clear tart green apple notes in their releases. Other wineries are choosing to put only a portion of their Chardonnay juice through malolactic and blending it with juice that hasn’t been put through this secondary fermentation.

Similarly, some wineries are holding their fruit in stainless steel tanks instead of oak barrels and allowing the fruit free rein. Other wineries hold some of their juice in stainless and some in oak and blend the juices to have notes of fruit and oak.

With blends possible ranging from no malolactic or oak to 100% malolactic and oak, the possible winemaking choices are nearly infinite. Winemakers are using these tools in different percentages and making wines that are unique, even exciting.

Imagine, as an example, visiting a tasting room and finding a Chardonnay where one third of the juice was fermented in oak, two thirds in stainless. Of the two thirds fermented in stainless; one third was aged in new french oak, one third was held in new american oak, one sixth in one year old American oak, and the remaining sixth was aged in stainless. Sixty percent of the juice underwent malolactic fermentation. Complex. Unique.

Chardonnay, once boring, predictable, is now a fun wine to taste. With winemakers using the tools I’ve talked about, and many others, differently, the finished wine is often a surprise. To me that makes wine tasting Chardonnays much more enjoyable.