Cheap but Complex Cab, Naked Chard, Quaffable Jerez, Bordelaise Zin

C

Christian Miller (CMM)

Christian Miller
Cabernet Sauvignon Maipo "Terrerum Reserva" 2005, Morande - ripe plum-current Cab fruit with mellow woodsy oak, starting to mature with pencil lead and cedar tones: round, medium-full body, pleasant maturing fruit, mellow tannins yet dry with some grip in a medium-long earthy-clay finish. This is something I think the Maipo can do very well, occupying a nice middle ground between Bordelaise aroma complexity and the ripeness and clay-dusty flavor of good mature CA Cab. A find at $10.****

Chardonnay Santa Barbara "Naked" 2009, Four Vines - mild aroma with pure appley Chardonnay fruit, with a touch of chestnut honey; medium body, round plump appley-melon fruit, decent acidity, buckwheat-bready tone in medium long finish. Not as complex as some previous vintages, but solid. I think this wine shows the way forward for unoaked California Chardonnay. Some of them want to emulate Chablis, but just end up shrill without the (soil-based?) complexities to make up for it. Condrieu or Alsace might be a better model, flavor-wise. I suspect a lot depends on having a good blend of clones or cuttings, rather than just one. ***

Jerez Amontillado NV, Argueso - light coppery color; distinct and overt fruit of a quince/orange sort, with overtones of hazelnut and salty Manzanilla; lively acidity, a little heat (19.5% alc); yet almost quaffable, an odd concept for an Amontillado. Quite dry, good nutty-stony length. ****

Zinfandel Dry Creek Reserve Selection 2007, Hayman & Hill - med dark color; tight at first, it steadily opens to raspberry Zin flavor with a hint of allspice and something like birch beer; medium-full and grippy, decent length, holds up well in a half-full bottle for two days. Looking for claret-style Zin? Heres your wine. ***(*)
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

Chardonnay Santa Barbara "Naked" 2009, Four Vines - mild aroma with pure appley Chardonnay fruit, with a touch of chestnut honey; medium body, round plump appley-melon fruit, decent acidity, buckwheat-bready tone in medium long finish. Not as complex as some previous vintages, but solid. I think this wine shows the way forward for unoaked California Chardonnay. Some of them want to emulate Chablis, but just end up shrill without the (soil-based?) complexities to make up for it. Condrieu or Alsace might be a better model, flavor-wise. I suspect a lot depends on having a good blend of clones or cuttings, rather than just one. ***
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Wow, Christian. Four names that are new to me. Regarding your musings about CalChard: I didn't realize they grew Chardonnay in Alsace and Condrieu [insert emoticon of choice] I'd think that the Mconnais might be the best model for CA, striving for a certain amount of leanness without going to austere extreme of Chablis. CA fruit isn't going to go away, but it's a question of how to keep enough acidity (and how to remove spoofy diacetyl and vanillin) to keep the wines food-friendly.

Mark Lipton
 
I didn't realize they grew Chardonnay in Alsace
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If you've ever had Zind or many a crmant, you might think otherwise.

Also, chardonnay used to be allowed under the "pinot" (unmodified) or "pinot d'Alsace" designations; since that's based on the misapprehension that it's a/k/a pinot chardonnay, I don't know if they've changed their minds on this issue.
 
Four Vines makes some pretty good stuff. Their 2007 Dusi Vineyard zinfandel was the best zin I tasted on a tour of a half dozen wineries last year in Paso Robles (Disorderlies take note of its 14.7 percent alcohol). Turns out this is from a different Dusi vineyard that Ridges gets its zinfandel. Two Dusi brothers each planted vineyards. The one Ridge uses is east of Highway 101 but west of the river, so old timers consider it a westside vineyard. But I digress.
They make a wide range of wines, including the high-alcohol, fruit-forward monsters that give Parkeristas a boner.
I generally like their wines. Having said that, I've tried the Chardonnay in a couple of vintages and found it one-dimensional and needing neutral oak or something to give it better texture.
 
originally posted by Thor:
I didn't realize they grew Chardonnay in Alsace
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If you've ever had Zind or many a crmant, you might think otherwise.

Also, chardonnay used to be allowed under the "pinot" (unmodified) or "pinot d'Alsace" designations; since that's based on the misapprehension that it's a/k/a pinot chardonnay, I don't know if they've changed their minds on this issue.
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The Alsace/Condrieu comment was more as a style/flavor guideline, i.e. succulent fruit with floral or tropical tones, rather than "make Chard like this." Some of the clones or field selections of Chardonnay in California can be remarkably floral. Trust Thor, Master of Munster-region Minutiae, to show that I could have meant it literally.

As for Macon, I've kind of lost touch with those wines, probably taste them only 2 or 3 times a year these days, which is probably my loss. I can see how the winemaking techniques could be a nice fit for California, but I suspect the flavor would end up quite different. I can't recall ever getting that meadow-heather-straw tone that I find in Macons in a California Chardonnay.

My theory is that some of the best-intentioned no-oak California Chardonnays, from good winemakers, don't turn out well because:
a) the soil doesn't give the kind of character/complexity that good sites in Chablis (for example) can. The problem of one-dimensional flavor in Chardonnay is aggravated if you have only a single clone, or similar-flavored clones, from a single site.
b) in aiming for a Chablis style, they pick earlier for good acid, whereas California's forte is ripe succulent fruit.

Could be hogwash, but there it is.
 
The scarcity of limestone in California is IMHO a problem for chardonnay, pinot noir... and tempranillo, which all benefit a lot from limestone.

Josh Jensen went all over the place years ago until he settled on that godforsaken place and called it Calera, which means 'limestone quarry' in Spabish.
 
originally posted by Morgan Harris:
Latitudes...Or the simple fact that Burgundy is a the same latitude as Nova Scotia and California is at the same latitude as Algeria..
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Given that CA is roughly 1000 km stem to stern, it's fairer to say to that its major growing regions span the same latitudes as Spain's. Your point still holds, though.

Mark Lipton
 
Pretty incomparable climate-wise. Western Europe has the warm Gulf Stream, California doesn't - but has the cold Pacific Ocean. Limestone helps some grape varieties in a diversity of climates, as we have seen with tempranillo in Spain from north to south. Jensen gets a more delicate, more complex pinot noir at Calera than others get from cooler sites with no limestone. IMHO of course.
 
originally posted by VS:
Pretty incomparable climate-wise. Western Europe has the warm Gulf Stream, California doesn't - but has the cold Pacific Ocean. Limestone helps some grape varieties in a diversity of climates, as we have seen with tempranillo in Spain from north to south. Jensen gets a more delicate, more complex pinot noir at Calera than others get from cooler sites with no limestone. IMHO of course.
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Soil, latitude, climate - indeed there's a laundry list of differences. And of course, Chablis is quite distinct even in France itself.

I personally wouldn't call Calera wines delicate, especially compared to the coolest Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley locations, but he definitely obtains complexity.

Wasn't aware of the limestone-Rioja connection. Could bode well for Tempranillo in western Paso Robles.
 
Spain has the largest surface of limestone-based vineyards in the world - and that includes Rioja and Ribera del Duero, but not Priorat or Bierzo. France is second.
 
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