Chardonnays, Californian and French

The end of the semester + the beginning of summer = hard to log in Thursday night tastings. But they've been good recently, focusing on Chardonnays from the United States and France.

The wines were:

American
2007 Chalone Vineyard Monterey County Chardonnay ($20)
2007 Bedell Cellars Reserve Chardonnay ($35)

White Burgundies
2003 Beaue Gréves Domaine Jean-Marc Morey 1er Cru ($35)
2006 Auxey-Duresses "Les Hautes" Jean-Marc Vincent ($48)

The two American Chardonnays are instructively different versions of American style Chardonnay. In general, New World Chardonnays, and especially American Chards, are big yellow honeypots. One reason Chardonnay is so "big" here is the way it's vinified, which is, often, with lots of malolactic fermentation and long seasoning in new oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation is a process that turns the bitter malic acid present in grape must into lactic acid--the kind found in milk and butter. All that lactic acid is what gives Chardonnay that round buttery body. New oak, of course, adds flavors of vanilla and toast and (obviously) oak. A book could be written on the use of new oak in modern wine making. In any case, many U.S. Chardonnays are heavily oaked and malolactically fermented, and for that reason they have gained a reputation as big and bold--or obvious and tacky, depending on one's tastes.

What's interesting here is that the two Chardonnays are made differently: the Chalone is a big American without a lot of oak, and the Bedell is a big American with tons of oak. Both are produced with lots of malo. How do I know? Drinking them side by side can tell a lot.

Chalone is one of the west coast's most famous labels. Chalone's Chardonnay came in third in the famous Judgment of Paris, a 1976 wine tasting in France that established California wines on the global stage (George M. Taber's 2005 book Judgment of Paris tells the story in 336 pages). This bottle of 2007 was voted one of the top 100 wines of the year by Wine Spectator last year. Chalone Vineyard was also an early proponent of malolactic fermentation and brought Burgundian winemaking techniques to California wines back in the Ford and Carter years. The soil is said to be rich in granite and limestone, mimicking the terroir of places like Chablis. In short, this is a storied American wine. So unlike a Chablis, though, the wine is Americanly strong: rich and creamy with a depth of flavor (vanilla, pears, honey, flowers) and a muted nose. Barely any oak. While there is a lot happening in the glass, for my taste, this wine is simply too plush.

Bedell Cellars is not in California, where the great American Chardonnays are produced. Where is it? The North Fork of Long Island, never thought of as a true wine destination. Tracy and I took a trip there a few months ago and, at the tasting, got very enthusiastic about their pricey but boldly delicious Reserve Chardonnay. Tastings are not always the best indicators of how much you'll like a wine when you actually get home. You're out at a beautiful vineyard enjoying yourself and suddenly everything is delicious. This wine isn't bad in any way--it's really quite good--though it's ripe with oak and fruit and vanilla. I noticed that the colder it got, the more I liked it--which is perhaps a way of saying that I didn't like the lushness, as coldness keeps body and flavor in check. But tasting this next to the Chalone, it seemed that these two wines stood as good examples of American Chardonnay, milky and oaky and rich. The oak really pops out in the Bedell when tasted next to the Chalone, which restrains its wood flavors considerably.

The white Burgundies are dramatically different. In fact, the difference is not only great between the wines, but the actual styles of taste are of two separate characteristics altogether. That is, white Burgundy tastes like white Burgundy and American Chardonnay tastes like American Chardonnay. There are obviously exceptions to this, but in this case the differences between regions--and their similarity--was striking. The Beaue Gréves is a real 1er cru Burgundy wine, with layers of flavor and that depth and impressive range of flavor that these wines are famous for. It was full of bright toasty flavors, almost like a crispy piece of country bread. I also tasted that vegetal robustness many Burgundies display. This wine is rich and full, though without the more syrupy and dense mouthfeel of the Chalone and Bedell wines. The Auxey-Duresses was similar the the Beaue Gréves, though had a detectable whiff of forest mushroom along with all the other tastes. Beautiful, happy wines. One thing about great Burgundies is the color, which sparkles and glimmers, light and wry and rich and full at the same time.

Interestingly, these two white Burgundies are purveyed by two of the best-known American importers of French wine, Neal Rosenthal (Beaue Gréves) and Kermit Lynch (Auxey-Duresses). Both these importers ship their wines in cold storage to preserve the right cellar temperature during trans-Atlantic voyages. This is actually crucial to imported wines, which may sit in a ship's hold for weeks. Imagine wine headed to California, shipped through the Panama Canal, baking in the wicked Panamanian heat. Cold shipping adds a few cents to each bottle, but it most definitely worth it.