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MORE CHARDONNAYS
Impressive Chardonnays
- QUPE WINERY
2010 Santa Barbara Chardonnay $17.99
2008 Reserve $26.99
 Bob Lindquist and the Qupe "team" have what's probably our
best-selling wine in most recent vintages. The label depicts an art-deco rendition of a
poppy, the state flower of California. "Qupe" is a Chumash Indian word for
poppy, by the way. -
- This is a barrel-fermented Chardonnay. The juice is
whole-cluster pressed and allowed to 'settle' before being racked into
barrels for its fermentation. This typically sees about 20% new François Freres' barrels.
The 2010 offers the usual nice oak and butter character. After fermentation, the wine spends about 9 months on
the spent yeast. It is mildly
oaky and fairly buttery. Most reasonably priced, too!
Bob's "reserve" Chardonnay from the 2008 vintage is a huge
wine. The juice is handled in relatively the same fashion as their
'regular' bottling, except they use a higher percentage of new
barrels. The wine is matured longer on the spent yeast in oak.
It is bottled without having been filtered. Deeply toasty, moderately smoky and quite
buttery...don't miss it.
- L'ANGEVIN
2005 Russian River $37.99
2005 "Charles Heintz Vineyard" $54.99
 Bob
and I were at a trade tasting in 2003 and one of the first wines we found
was a Chardonnay from this L'Angevin winery. Very impressive.
And we're not easily pleased, frankly. We started to pester the poor
fellow behind the table, only to discover precisely why the wine was so
good! (Good grapes, of course.) It seems Mister L'Angevin,
Robbie Meyer, was a protégé at another winery whose Chardonnay we used to fancy:
Peter Michael.
Meyer studied biology in the south, where he got his degree, a B.S.
That figures, since a lot of people in the wine business are full of
"BS." He came to California and studied at U.C.
Davis before his five year stint at Peter Michael's little
winery.
He was affiliated with another favorite label, Lewis
Cellars. Today he consults for a few small winery operations and
focuses on L'Angevin.
The name L'Angevin is actually Langevin and it's Robbie's mother's maiden
name. The family hails from the Anjou region of France's Loire Valley,
another place famous for wine.
Two really good Chardonnays from L'Angevin. Barrel fermentation.
Natural yeasts. Battonage. No fining or filtering. It's
sort of "hands off" winemaking but you have to have a really fine
"hand" to be successful.
The 2005 Russian River Valley bottling displays a lovely bit of vanilla
cream and smoky, minerally notes. There's a hint of ripe pear fruit on
the nose and palate, too.
I also enjoyed the 2005 Sonoma Coast bottling, a wine that comes from a
higher elevation vineyard of Charles Heintz. This shows a bit more
power and intensity and I found it a shade smokier than the Russian River
bottling. It's remarkably fine and styled along the lines of
good White Burgundies.
- AUBERT
2002 Sonoma Coast "Ritchie Vineyard" Sold Out
 You might recognize the name "Aubert," as this fellow had been
associated for many years with the Peter Michael Winery. He was the
winemaker and has recently been hired as a consultant.
Hired by Helen Turley as assistant winemaker at Peter Michael, Mark Aubert
ran the show for a number of vintages. He's got his own label, as well
as consulting for several other producers (aside from Peter Michael, he
oversees the Colgin wine and the Sloan project).
Aubert is a fan of the Sonoma Coast area, having his own vineyard in the
Sebastopol-Forestville area. The first Aubert-labeled wine comes from
the Ritchie Vineyard, planted just east of Forestville. The wine,
though grown in a cool climate, is a bit shy in the acidity
department. Aubert says it was his first experience with this
vineyard. Future vintages will be crafted with a bit longer aging
potential in mind.
François Frères and Tonnellerie Damy are the coopers for Aubert's
barrels. These, in our experience, tend to give a very sweet fragrance
to wines matured in that cooperage. Aubert used 60% new wood for his
2002 Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay. Weekly lees-stirring, so you'll find
some toasty oak, vanillin and vanilla cream notes in this wine. Full
malolactic (this may have softened the wine too much, but it sure shows
nicely today!).
The wine is big and powerful and it packs a wallop as the alcohol is a bit
elevated. Very limited, however. We only got a few bottles as
the word "Aubert" is French for "sold out."
NEWS: Aubert has decided that its
precious wines are no longer suitable for sale in "fine wine"
emporiums such as ours. This, despite the fact that we did have their
first and second vintages.
The wines are now available ONLY to certain dining establishments.
This is a most sad development.
The few bottles we received in the past didn't "make" our year,
nor will not having the new vintage "break" the current year...We
simply enjoyed having these precious bottles and being able to share them
with our good customers.
I wonder if Aubert realizes what a difficult position it placed its
distributor by having this new marketing policy?
I wonder if wineries, such as Aubert, realize that the
top, top estates in Europe, whom they seek to emulate, do not have the same
marketing policies. You won't find Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, for
example, selling its wine to private customers in France. The Domaine
de la Romanee-Conti does not solicit business via a web site, in hopes of
selling its wines directly to consumers, collectors or investors.
Angelo Gaja realizes that his wine belongs in a shop such as Weimax, where
it is held in high regard amongst other top wines from, not only Italy, but
around the world.
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- CHALONE VINEYARD
- 2008 Estate
$19.99 (walk in customer's pricing)
(Special Limited Sale Price! Winery Price is $28)
 The history is long and varied, legend being that some Frenchman
found some quartz crystals on this property near the Pinnacles in Monterey County.
Taking these as a sign vines might thrive in this soil, it's said Burgundian varieties
such as Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were originally cultivated on this
site. The vineyard was in use shortly after Prohibition, owned by someone named
Silvear.
After years of remaining idle, Dick Graff (who died in 1997 in a plane
crash) revived the place and today Chalone Vineyard is (we think) prospering. In the
old days, water was trucked up to nourish the vines; there was no electricity and
the cellar was cooled with ice brought in from (somewhat nearby) Salinas! I
recall the first time I visited, they had no telephone service, though
electricity was one modern convenience.
They made
traditionally Burgundian-styled wines, barrel-fermented the whites. We feel the
wines dipped a bit in quality in the 1980s, but are happy to report the current crop of
wines seems to mark a return to "Chalone Quality". The new vintage
of Chardonnay is crisp, mildly oaked (they used to make really heavily-oaked Chardonnays!)
and quite dry. It displays a bit more of the toasted hazelnut, French
Burgundian style which we really enjoy. If you have more than a few people over for dinner, try a bottle of
this alongside of Chalone's excellent Pinot Blanc.
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- CHALK HILL
 The
Chalk Hill appellation is south of Sonoma's Alexander and Knight's Valleys
and is part of the north-eastern portion of the larger Russian River Valley
appellation.
The region gained some measure of fame when vintner Rodney Strong made some
Chardonnay from vines in this region about 30 years ago. He was struck
by the shallow, quick draining, somewhat acidic soils in the area which
produced especially distinctive Chardonnay.
Attorney Fred Furth bought the property, some 1200 acres, back in
1972. He'd won some large class-action settlement and was flush with
bucks to embark on an enological adventure.
The Chalk Hill appellation was, apparently, readjusted to include Furth's
estate! Imagine the guy owns "Chalk Hill" Estate Vineyards
and Winery and then he's not in the Chalk Hill appellation! There's a
lawsuit waiting to happen.
Dave Ramey was their winemaker for a number of years and he established the
style which remains in place today with Chalk Hill's Chardonnay.
The wine is fermented in oak and they leave it in contact with the spent
yeast for about 9 months, stirring this sediment on a regular basis.
This accounts for the smoky notes you'll find in the wine.
The 2004 vintage is currently in the shop, a big, smoky, toasty
Chardonnay. It's a really nice bottle of wine, quite showy and
brighter than the previous couple of vintages. It's also dry and
nicely oaked.
Chalk Hill has been a winery which has emphasized sales in restaurant
accounts. I recall how difficult it was for us to obtain a case or two
of wine from these people since they seemed a bit allergic to a shop such as
ours. As a result of not wanting stores to have their wines, the
winery is a bit behind in terms of vintages...
The winery publishes a book annually...a guide to restaurants around America
which, naturally, have Chalk Hill wine for sale. They approached us to
sell this guide in our shop and I sent them a note back explaining we had
little interest in promoting such a book since it leads to more
discrimination towards fine shops such as ours by snooty wineries such as
Chalk Hill. I am amused that today Chalk Hill's distributor sells the
wines to any retail account in good standing, viewing a "sale as a
sale." This was not the case some years ago.-
- Currently in stock: 2005 Chalk Hill Chardonnay SALE
$39.99 (750ml)
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COVENANT
The Covenant wines are from a couple of Napa wine
"barons," Leslie Rudd and Jeff Morgan.
Rudd's family ran a wine & spirits wholesaling company in Kansas and
since then he's dabbled in real estate, gourmet foods, a Napa winery called
Rudd Estate and now this little project.
Morgan has a checkered past, having been a bandleader at the Grand Casino in
Monte Carlo before returning home and making wine on Lon Gisland (that's how
people there say it-- Lon-Guy-land). He then got tangled up
with writing articles for The Wine Spectator. He managed to have the
Marvin Shanken tattoo removed and then worked for Dean & Deluca in Napa
and that's where he met Rudd. Morgan also has a brand of wine called
Solarosa specializing in pink wines.
The Covenant brand has featured Cabernet Sauvignon for the most part, but in
2008 they made their first white wine. It's a 12 barrel production
from the Bacigalupi vineyard in Sonoma's Russian River Valley. Intense
yellow in color, it's a full-throttle, toasty oak and ripe peach/pear-like
fruit character.
Oh...the Covenant wines are kosher, by the way.
Currently in stock: 2008 COVENANT Russian River Valley
CHARDONNAY $37.99
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DEHLINGER WINERY
2008 Russian River Valley CHARDONNAY $36.99
 Tom
Dehlinger is now in his third decade of production.
We knew him when he was a young feller...today he's a gray beard!
The Dehlinger family has about 50 acres of vineyards in Sebastopol and make some exceptional wines.
Now much sought-after, we're happy to say we discovered Tom back in the mid-1970s
when he first started. Back then Tom grew but a small portion of the fruit for his
wines.
Today all the wine is estate grown.
Chardonnays are fermented in oak
and undergo full malolactic. Unfiltered, too. They are beautiful wines.
The 2008 is a really marvelous example of California Chardonnay in general
and "Dehlinger Chardonnay" in particular. It's the sort of
wine which is a "winemaker's wine," not something concocted for
the marketing department. This has nice appley fruit and a bit of
toasty oak, but it's not a blob of caramel...there's nice acidity to this
and it's dry.
Though he's a
"star" winemaker, Tom Dehlinger is a bit of a hermit and homebody. The wines remain
fairly priced. And hard to find.
A couple of his daughters are interested in the wine business. Carmen
& Eva, the former taking care of sales, the latter working in the
winery.
- ERIC KENT
 Kent Humphrey
and his wife Colleen are the dynamic duo behind this new enterprise, a brand
worthy of the "rising star" designation, in our view.
Kent's middle name is Eric, hence the E-K branding for the
wines. -
 Eric
was in some phase of the advertising business and when his firm was
swallowed up by a larger fish, he grew weary of the politics of a more
'corporate' environment.
He signed up for grunt work at one winemaking facility, embarking on his
wine-production education. After a second gig as a cellar rat, he came
upon the opportunity to buy some grapes and try his hand at making wine
under his own banner. The grape market was in a down phase (vintners
and many marketing people have short memories and have forgotten things were
a struggle in 2002 and 2003!) and Kent struck up a wonderful relationship
with a grower or two.
We tasted the range of wines from this gentleman and were mighty impressed!
He's got a good, artisan mentality about making wine, preferring to showcase
the grape rather than put his thumbprint squarely and firmly on the
wine.
Kent's stated philosophy is:
"Every vintage we prefer to follow the grapes' lead and offer gentle
care as the wine emerges from the juice. If a wine asks for help, we
provide it. If a wine is happy on its own, we simply let it be and
celebrate its unique evolution."
We especially liked Kent's Russian River Valley-designated Chardonnay.
The juice is settled for a day and then racked into French oak for its
fermentation. Ambient yeasts are used and the wine undergoes some
measure of a malolactic fermentation. The idea is to retain an edge of
acidity, so if he has to stop the malolactic to achieve the crispness, Kent
will do so.
-
 The
2008 Sonoma Coast is the most recent release in the shop. We like the
ripe pear fruit of this wine and there's a touch of toasty oak here, as
well. The production of this amounts to less than 150 cases, so it's
not a wine you'll find all over town.
We should also mention the perpetual "art show" provided by Kent
and Colleen (she's an artist, by the way). Their bottles have a normal
wine label, but they also have really interesting art adorning the
bottles. Each vintage each wine will have a different bit of art on
'display.' While we appreciate this and have an eye for art, it's the
liquid artistry that really captivates our interest.
His sister Renee handles sales for this little enterprise...-
- Currently in stock:
2008 ERIC KENT Sonoma Coast Chardonnay $38.99
-
FORMAN
 Ric
Forman was once one of the young Turks in Napa Valley winemaking, a bit of a
pioneer, having been the winemaker at a new start-up called Sterling
Vineyards.
Sterling was a lovely cellar atop a hill in Calistoga and customers would
have to take a Disneyland-styled tram ride from the parking lot up to the
winery.
At Sterling Ric made some stellar wines and many were lavishly-oaked.
Some years into the venture, the owners sold the place to a soft drink
company and Forman left, hooking up with the his old pal Peter Newton to
start what was supposed to be the Forman winery.
I recall visiting this lovely cellar near Spring Mountain and they'd decided
they admired the wines of the Domaine des Comtes Lafon. They'd tried
to replicate the very cold cellar at Lafon's Meursault estate by having a
"cold room" for the Chardonnay wines to slowly mature.
As the first wines were going to be bottled, Newton's wife, a
self-proclaimed expert in wine marketing, pushed to change the name of the
brand from Forman to something more flashy, like, you know,
Newton!
Ric got the message and left, doing some consulting work before finally
starting his own winery (with help from a guy who was making Gamay wines in
the style of Beaujolais, a feller named Charles Shaw).
I think Ric's first wines under his own label were made in 1983.
Chardonnay has really evolved and today's wine is not going to be one which
appeals to those who find Rombauer's or Z-D's to be the height of
sophistication. From a mildly wooded style a couple of decades ago,
today's Forman Chardonnay is the sort of wine which might make a vintner in
France's Chablis region raise an eyebrow.
The 2010 vintage is currently in stock. It's a really young, tight
wine having had no malolactic fermentation so its acidity is zesty and gives
the wine a taut quality. We find some stony, minerally notes and the
wine is light and stone, bone dry. It pairs well with mild seafood at
this stage and if you cellar this for five year, or so, you'll find it
unfolds into a wine of satisfying complexity.
Currently in stock: 2010 FORMAN Napa Valley CHARDONNAY Sale
$39.99
- FRANK FAMILY
 - The Frank Family winery is modest-sized enterprise located at our old
friend, Hanns Kornell's "champagne cellar" on Larkmead Lane in
Calistoga.
Hanns was a dear old fellow and made good sparkling wines for many years,
but he was using Riesling or Sylvaner as the base wine and the world was
more interested in the more classic Pinot Noir and Chardonnay-based
bubblies.
- The Frank Family story is of a Disney executive, Richard Frank, who took a
liking to Napa in the late 1980s and in 1990 he and Mrs. Frank bought a
little "weekend getaway" residence. A couple of years later,
a friend of theirs who owns Rombauer winery called to say the old Kornell
place was for sale and Mr. Rombaby suggested Frank pony up a few bucks and
buy the place. They actually partnered and bought the
property...Rombauer was bought out some years ago, though.
The brand is surprisingly well-known to our customers as a source of good
Cabernet and Chardonnay...at least, I'm surprised so many people recognize
the Frank Family name and the wine sells better than I would expect.
Their Chardonnays are routinely fairly big, robust white wines. They
employ about one-third brand new oak barrels and the rest is once and
twice-used cooperage. If you're looking for a wine of finesse and
elegance, I can't say this is your wine. But if you want a woodsy
Chardonnay with notes of ripe pear and baked apple, this is for you.
The winery offers some tasting notes on its Chardonnay...see if any of these
sound like what you're looking for in characteristics or qualities of a
Chardonnay: Key Lime zest, Anjou pear, white Nectarine and ripe
pineapple...toasted marshmallow, candied pecans and jasmine...citrus,
tropical fruit, lemon grass...cashew butter, cinnamon bread pudding and
caramel sauce...
Currently in stock: 2010 FRANK FAMILY Napa CHARDONNAY Sale $29.99
FROG'S LEAP WINERY
Frog's Leap has been around since the early 1980s and it was started as a
bit of a joke between John & Julie Williams and their pal, Dr. Larry
Turley.
John was a winemaker, having come to California from New York's Finger Lakes
to make wine at Mike Robbins' famous Spring Mountain Winery. He was
friendly with a local emergency room doctor, Larry Turley, and they decided
to start a goofy label, poking fun at the "Stag's Leap" wineries,
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Stags Leap Winery.
This stemmed from their purchase of an old site which had been once used to
raise frog's for gastronomic purposes.
Larry wanted to make big, humunguous red wines and ended up being bought out
and so he now runs the Turley winery...
John Williams is a big proponent of organic farming practices and he's been
employing this regimen for decades, long before "organic" and
"sustainable farming" became buzzwords and sales
tools.
Another facet of Frog's Leap wines is that John believes in sensible farming
in order to be able to produce good quality, drinkable wines. This
sounds like it ought to be every winemaker's philosophy, but John doesn't
over-crop his vines, then pick at insanely high levels of sugar. Many,
these days, over-crop and then think they can compensate for their greed by
picking later. And many of these folks also, then, add water to the
juice to be able to ferment the wine to dryness and then they jimmy-jack the
wine with technologies such as the spinning cone or reverse osmosis
filtration...
Frog's Leap, then, is a bit old-fashioned. They pick good grapes are
modest levels of sugar and ferment the wines to dryness, typically making
wines around 13.5% alcohol, sometimes less.
The 2010 Frog's Leap Chardonnay is a delight on several counts.
The wine comes from Carneros area vineyards and there are several
"components" to this wine. A small percentage sees
only stainless steel. About two-thirds is barrel-fermented and then
moved to stainless steel. And 20% is barrel-fermented and then barrel
aged. They piece together a nice little puzzle-of-a-Chardonnay
We like the fresh, green apple sort of aromatics and flavors and there's a
light touch of wood whispering in the background. It's a terrific wine
with seafood, but can work nicely with white meat dishes, too.
Currently in stock: 2010 FROG'S LEAP Carneros CHARDONNAY $25.99
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