What happens when friends taste expensive wine? Everybody ends up happy.
It started with an observation, which prompted a question that sparked an idea that spawned a story.
The observation: Once considered an “entry-level” varietal, more and more wine producers are releasing Chardonnays with hefty price tags.
The question: Are high-end Chardonnays worth the price?
The idea: Let’s try some of these wines and decide for ourselves.
The story: You’re about to read it.
First, a bit about Chardonnay
Among the most widely planted winegrape varietals in the world, Chardonnay is both revered and reviled among wine enthusiasts. That’s because the Chardonnay grape itself is fairly neutral, meaning the resulting wine’s flavor profile rests squarely in the hands of the winemaker, for better or for worse. Of course, terroir plays its hand as well—cool climate Chards tend to be leaner and crisper, with more acidity, while warmer climates can produce honey and tropical fruit flavors.
Chardonnay first came to wide international attention in 1976, when four white Burgundies (classic French wine made from Chardonnay grapes) were tasted against six California Chardonnays. The top-ranking wine was Calistoga-based Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay. Now known as the “Tasting at Paris,” this seminal event helped establish the reputation of California’s fledgling wine industry. As a result, demand for California Chardonnay increased exponentially, and winemakers and growers rushed to increase plantings. Back then, the trend was to emulate the French winemaking style, meaning crisper Chardonnays with more prominent minerality.
In the decades that followed, California developed its own signature Chardonnay style, thanks in large part to Sonoma County vintner Jess Jackson (Jackson Family Wines), who, in 1982, released his Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. In 1983, the wine won a Platinum Award from the American Wine Competition. It’s characterized as an oaky, buttery Chardonnay with a rich, rounded mouthfeel. This soon became the model for much of the Chardonnay produced in the state.
In the late 1990s, Chardonnay experienced a bit of consumer backlash. This so-called “ABC (anything but Chardonnay) movement” decried the overwhelming sameness that dominated the wine—the lack of subtlety or finesse in the winemaking. As a result, many winemakers began rethinking their approach to the varietal. Today, you can find a range of Chardonnay styles, particularly at higher price points. The oaky/buttery/tropical wines are still available, but you can also savor Chardonnays fermented and aged in stainless steel instead of barrels (eliminating the oak and enhancing the grape’s natural flavors) as well as wines that combine the two methods. These days, there’s something for everyone.
What’s it worth?
Here’s where things get tricky, because the focus of this discussion is high-end Chardonnays. How high? The least expensive wines considered for this article retail for $65 per bottle; the most expensive was $95. What?! Prices like these are more typically expected of cult Cabernet Sauvignons, and yet a number of Sonoma and Napa county wineries are releasing small lot Chardonnays at superlative price points. While NorthBay biz loves all North Bay wineries and respects the toil and artistry that goes into producing each vintage, such hefty sums seem a bit much.
“The fact is, there are really good Chardonnays made in volume. So that, by definition, brings down the potential price of the wine,” says sommelier Andrea Robinson. “A wine that’s not made in volume can’t compete when you can go get an amazing Chardonnay that’s been aged for 12 years and costs $40. By definition, Chardonnay producers need to look at the marketplace: There are diminishing returns after a certain price point. You can quickly rise above $100 for a Cabernet, but it’s not so easy for Chardonnay.”
So what makes a white wine worth so much? To help us sort this out, we assembled a panel of tasters, including Robinson; Lisa Amador, strategy and business development executive with Sutter Health in Santa Rosa; Monty and Sara Preiser, publishers of The Preiser Key to Napa Valley and The Preiser Key to Sonoma; Teresa Norton, partner at Beyers Costin law firm in Santa Rosa; and NorthBay biz publisher Norm Rosinski. With the Preisers’ help, we next gathered 12 spectacular (and expensive) Chardonnays and got down to business.
Judging the best
With 12 wines to sort through, our panel settled in quickly. Silence fell over the room as the swirling, sniffing, sipping and spitting got underway. Notes were taken and careful scrutiny paid. Once all the wines had been considered, lunch was served and the wines were reconsidered as a pairing. Adjustments were made and, ultimately, each taster ranked all wines in order of personal preference.
“Personal preference” became key to the discussion that followed, because there was no clear consensus as to a “best” wine; in the end, it fell to a points system to pick a winner. “Since all of these are stellar wines, this exercise will primarily prove how distinct everyone’s palate is from one another,” insisted Monty. “It’s about whether you like it or not—on this day and with this food. The fact that a wine is number 12 on this list does not mean it’s a bad wine.”
Everyone agreed. “That’s why I felt bad for my number 12 wine,” added one panelist.
“It’s like getting last place in the finals of the Olympics!” shouted another taster over the growing din. Ultimately, there was no Michael Phelps in the lot. Like the age-old Olympic debate, this competition turned out to be more about judgment calls (think synchronized swimming) than about a clear victor. Yet there had to be a winner.
But before the favorites were announced, the panel became reflective of the process. “The difficult part for me was the nuances,” offered Rosinski. “So many of the wines were within the style I like that it became difficult to decide which I liked more—and for what reasons. It was hard to articulate.”
“For me, this solidified the type of Chardonnay that I like,” remarked Sara. “My top choices were all very similar in style.”
“None of these wines were over-the-top in any way—they were all beautifully balanced, with a good use of oak and a good use of acid,” added Monty.
Who’s who
While the results were being tallied, the tasters were given an alphabetical list of the wines involved: six from Napa Valley and six from Sonoma County. Oohs, aahs and a few wows filtered through the room. The general consensus among wine writers and critics is that these are top-of-the-line Chardonnays. This was, indeed, the cream of the crop. (For a list of wines included in this panel, including the top five in order, see the sidebar below).
Given the pedigrees of these wines, it was surprising to many on the panel that there was no runaway winner. “I’ve definitely been in tastings of great California Chardonnays, and they were incredibly over-the-top,” said Robinson. “I tasted none of that today. What’s interesting to me is that each of them, wherever they were in my ranking, either held their esteem or, in my personal score, amped it when paired with the food. That tells me there’s amazing balance here.”
And with the hard work done, panelists returned to the bottles. Conversation became more leisurely and turned toward bigger concepts. To put all this in perspective, the panelists were asked a few closing questions.
First: Has anyone ever paid $100 for a Chardonnay? Restaurant purchases excluded, only Robinson and the Preisers had.
Second: Have you paid $100 for Cabernet Sauvignon? Everyone answered yes.
Which led to: What’s the difference?
“Because Chardonnay grapes tend to be cheaper,” someone offered.
“It’s an aging thing,” said another. “Chardonnay is to drink; Cabernet you can lay down.”
And so it went: “Isn’t part of it simply perception? Influenced by the marketing and what your expectations are?”
Countered by: “If it’s the best of the best, what’s the difference if it’s a red wine or a white one? Why not $100 for a Chardonnay?”
Another return to the glasses—there was, after all, no reason to leave wine behind—led to “I just finished my favorite—and the good news is that I still liked it!” and “It sure does taste good when you go back to it [after the reveal].”
As the day wound down, there was time for one final question: What did you learn?
The best answer: “I learned I have expensive taste.”
The Top Five
Vineyard 7 & 8, 2010 Spring Mountain Estate ($75.00)
Edge Hill by Rudd, 2009 Bacigalupi RRV ($75.00)
Lewis Cellars, 2010 Reserve Napa Valley ($65.00)
Jarvis, 2009 Finch Hollow Napa Valley ($95.00)
Matanzas Creek, 2009 Journey Sonoma County ($75.00)
Other Wines Tasted (alphabetical)
Hanzell, 2009 Sonoma Valley ($75.00)
Kistler, 2009 Vine Hill Vineyard RRV ($90.00)
Kongsgaard, 2009 Napa Valley ($85.00)
Paul Hobbs, 2010 Richard Dinner Vineyard Sonoma Mountain ($75.00)
Peter Michael, 2009 Belle Cote Knights Valley Sonoma County ($94.00)
Ramey, 2009 Hudson Vineyard Napa Carneros ($65.00)
Staglin Family, 2010 Estate Napa Valley ($75.00)
“The One” Won Us Over
By Monty and Sara Preiser
We like to keep an open mind, tempered by a healthy dose of “prove it to me” when something is proffered as being better than other commodities already in the marketplace. And so it was when we hosted master sommelier, author, instructor, and TV host Andrea Robinson at our home for a demonstration of her new wine stemware, “The One.”
It’s Andrea’s position, after engaging in years of scientifically significant research, that only one glass is needed to enjoy red wines, and one glass is needed to appreciate the whites. To be entirely clear, she’s designed and is marketing two glasses, a bit larger one for reds and a bit smaller one for whites, but both (by coincidence, she reports) of substantially the same shape.
As all enophiles, gourmands and party-goers know, the major wine stem manufacturers have taken the industry to the point where they manufacture a different type of glass for almost every varietal of wine. There are many claims as to why this enhances the enjoyment of drinking each wine, but often the claim revolves around how each particularly designed glass lets one avoid a certain characteristic of the wine and bring forth what’s best.
To us, this explanation has always seemed a bit faulty. We simply want to see what a wine has in full. No disguises. Yet we’ve admittedly been caught up in the culture that, for the most part, universally agrees that stemware with a large bowl and high sides (commonly called Bordeaux glasses) are best for big reds, while shorter sided glasses shaped somewhat like a tulip (commonly called Burgundy glasses) are best for lighter red and white wines. We’ve never believed anyone needs 10 or 11 differently designed glasses—and who has the space to store so many?
Therefore, we already agreed with Andrea that only one white glass and one red glass were necessary for most wine lovers, and we were pretty happy with the stemware choices we’d made for ourselves. Nevertheless, due in most part to her great reputation (and the fact that we like her), we were not only more than willing to try out her new glasses, but curious, too. We knew, however, the stem designs would only be newsworthy if they showed the wines in a markedly better way than would our regular, traditional glassware.
You’ve probably figured out by now that we did indeed conclude Andrea’s glasses were distinctively better. The shape of the glass obviously traps the aromas inside, letting one inhale the full vapors, unlike a glass with a larger circumference where gaps must exist between the sides of the glass and the nose. The aromas, simply, are more concentrated. Further, due to the specific designs of the bowls, the flavors are more defined. We were surprised, but utterly convinced.
Monty and Sara Preiser are publishers of The Preiser Key to Napa Valley and The Preiser Key to Sonoma. A longer version of this article first appeared in the July 29, 2011 edition of The Preiser Key to Napa Valley.
Thanks to Monty and Sara Preiser for hosting this event in their home, thanks to Justin Preiser for a delicious gourmet meal, and thanks to Sonoma County Airport Express for ensuring safe transport for the tipsy tasters on the way home.
