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Connoisseur's Guide Oct '06 - Featured Article

October 15, 2006

You see a picture of estimable winemaker, Bill Hunter, just over there, and by now, you have probably read the caption for the photo. If not, let us simply tell you that Mr. Hunter is proving, in his latest releases, that he not only knows how to make good wine, but more importantly, that he knows how to make great, world-class wine. Of course, Mr. Hunter is not the only winemaker whose efforts deliver masterful expressions of Chardonnay’s incredible potential. We have entered into an era in which winemaker after winemaker is demonstrating a new, broader understanding of how to get the best from Chardonnay. Whether this is the final stop in the evolution of the California style is not for us to say, but we can tell you without the least bit of equivocation that the best of current batch are head and shoulders better than any group of Chardonnays that have come before them. 

Wineries have been making Chardonnay in California for years now. We are not talking about grapes like Viognier, Pinot Gris, Sangiovese and Syrah whose presences have come about in the last couple of decades. While Chardonnay did not exist in profuse numbers (only a couple of hundred acres in the 1960 survey of grape acreage), it nonetheless could be found at the time in the portfolios of such serious, noteworthy practitioners as Martin Ray, Stony Hill and Hanzell with folks like Chalone and Heitz Chardonnay soon joining the competition. Those early wines opened the door to a flood of Chardonnay in the 1970s, and the grape and California has never looked back. Over the ensuing three decades, the prevailing styles in Chardonnay have changed several times, and the places in which Chardonnay is grown have expanded in ways that have benefited both the grape and our palates. We remember the early experiments with malo-lactic fermentation (a process that turns the harsh malic acid into a rounder lactic acid while also lowering the overall acid level in the wine). The goal was not so much to lose acidity but to gain the roasted grain complexity and rounder feel on the palate that “ML” also contributes. But, along with that trend also came the recognition that riper grapes yielded deeper, richer tasting wines. And while California struggled in the early ‘80s with a foolish and unrewarding “food wine” fetish featuring wines of lower ripeness and reduced oak, thereby negating the very strength of our Chardonnays, the longer effect was the emergence of the “big, ripe, fleshy, fat, oaky, alcoholic” style. We still see wines like that, and frankly, many of them are exactly what our modern cuisine wants. They are tasty and rewarding, but they have lacked balance and refinement for the lighter foods that are also part of the way we eat.

So, it is full marks to Mr. Hunter and his compatriots who continue to advance the Chardonnay cause. We would especially call your attention to our praise for the leading white wine makers in California and the Northwest. If there are two unifying themes in those selections (see pages 188 and 189), they would be deep flavors and impeccable balance. The new era for California Chardonnay has arrived, and it will serve us all very well indeed.