A year or two ago Michael Davies shared a glass of 1996 Rex Hill Reserve Chardonnay with us (Lynn Penner-Ash would have been been the winemaker), it was both beautiful and incredibly youthful. I have had beautiful older bottles of Cameron Clos Electrique Blanc, and Tyson Crowley shared a vertical of his Four Winds going back to 2010, with no sign of expiration in the 2010 (or any of them).
There is definitely a resurgence in interest in Chardonnay. With beautiful, age worthy wines from a number of sources. The wrong clone wrong place argument is a hard one for me, since Four Winds and Clos Electrique are definitely the âHeirloom Clonesâ that are referred to as the âwrong clonesâ in that argument. Somewhere on this board is a great quote from Jim Anderson about how he thought there was something wrong with Four Winds as a site, and so after years of trying they blamed the fruit and gave it up. Then he tasted Tysonâs wine.
Iâll let Marcus talk about our wines, there has been an evolution of style over the years, but every time I have tasted the older bottles they, almost more so than the reds, benefit from being open a bit. 2-24 hours at least. This has been the case for many of the producers that we have tasted at the retrospectives that Scott and Rick mentioned. When I have had the chance to revisit wines that were left at the end of the tastings, the producers and sites that I admire have all gained transparency and come alive with air, with both reductive and even seeming oxidative notes giving way to youth and complexity (and making me feel like we were doing the tastings on vintages that were too young, not too old).
For me, the potential is there for extraordinary quality both in youth and age, and the number of producers making wines that I am looking forward to trying in 10-20 years time is truly exciting. There is a craze for Chardonnay now for sure, which definitely means there will be some wines that fall flat, sites that have no business being planted (and quantities of vines that have no business being in the ground) but the focus also gives producers the excuse to spend the time and energy on the wines that they deserve.
I have enjoyed quite a few Oregon Chardonnayâs with at least 5-9 years of age within the last year. The list would include 2011 Eyrie Original Vines, 2011 and 2012 Domaine Drouhin Arthur, 2012 and 2015 Arterberry Maresh Maresh, numerous 2013-2015 Walter Scottâs, 2012 Belle Pente, Brick House, J. Cristopher, 2014 Soter North Valley, 2015 Crowley Four Winds, Chehalem Ianâs, 2015 Lingua Franca Sisters and a number of Goodfellow bottles including a 2013 Richards last weekend. All good to exceptional. I donât have any answers for you, but I was kinda surprised that the most recent 2012 Maresh consumed last month lacked the snap or electricity from my experience in January 2019. As others have mentioned, perhaps the freshness or electricity wanes or dissipates around 7-8 years. Not a bad thing, just different. I think that 2016 is my oldest vintage with Cameron Chardonnayâs, so Iâm looking forward to enjoying them in the future.
Unrelated, but related, a 2017 Vincent Ribbon Ridge Brick House Chardonnay was a head turner last night and tonight.
Iâm in the camp that the new resurgence of quality may be based on lower cropping, less new oak (perhaps back in the day going for what the consumer perceived as high quality or to mask lesser quality of base product), and more attention (and ability to obtain higher prices) these days. The few people who seemed really committed to it back then (like Bill Fuller, John Cameron etc) did very well. Many did not - at least for my tastes. But I am not a winemaker working with many, many variables in different time frames - so I donât really know.
Pretty excited about the current developments though.
Spot on, but I still think SO2 and lees contact are important. The lower the alcohol the better the aromatic expression, but the more necessary the lees contact, and cask ferment, for the texture(see Donnhoff, Helmut). SO2 still provides freshness/precision, even in youthful wines, most especially if you have taken the care to hold them on the lees long enough to take advantage of autolysis(maybe not as important to folks who bottle asapâŚ).
2012 was a horribly small crop, that in my mind made nice wines but needed to be picked a week earlier by almost everyone that I have tasted, Tyson Crowleyâs Four Winds being the exception. While the Richardâs is holding up fine, itâs quite tropical. For me, I think the vintages that I would prefer to be judged on for our Chardonnays ability to age are 2014-2018. While the earlier versions are good wines, they are still marked by the hands of a winemaker finding the process(still the case in 2016-2018 but at least I have the basics covered now).
Noting the earlier mention of lower yields by John. I am seeking lower sugars, better acidity, and smaller berries(more phenolics). None of those things happen with lower yields. Please see Terry Theiseâs comments, in his Germany catalogues, on yields and Rieslings. My own experience mirrors what he is reporting. Low yields unquestionably lead to bigger berries with thinner skins, and generally higher sugars and lower acids.
We carry whatever Mother Nature will give us for Chardonnay fruit, no thinning. In 2018, I sent Paul Durant a text(mostly joking) asking him which row he was going to pick our 10 tons from, so that we could get useful samples. I am not trying to be a jackass, but the low yields mantra is, IMO, overstated. In Oregon Pinot Noir, this has led to an over abundance of âunctuousâ and expensive Pinot Noirs(we target 3-3.5 tons/acres) and low yields produce exactly the opposite results from what I am looking for in Chardonnay.
Speaking specifically to Durant, we work with Dijon clones. While I wish there was Draper at Durant, if it is planted there someone else gets it.
That said, I also think mixed clonal plantings produce some of the very best wines coming out of Oregon. There are 4 Chardonnay clones in the acre in production at Whistling Ridge, and this fall we have another 1.4 acres grafted to John Paulâs(Cameron) full mix of Heirloom clones planted at Clos Electrique(super generous of him to let us have the plant material).
With all due respect, I would say that most of the resurgence in quality is in earlier picking choices. One of the bigger eye openers for me was at a cooperage tasting as I was transitioning from waiting tables to cellar work. Tasted a bunch of 100% new oak White Burgundy. Tasted nothing like my idea of what new oak tasted like⌠lower alcohols=less extraction and less heat and thickness, which leads to entirely different interactions with oak. Chardonnay shows new oak more than Pinot Noir certainly, and my favorite barrels tend to be 800L once-fills⌠but there are great wines made in new oak. They may take a little time, but the material is correct if the juice that goes in the barrel is correct, and that is about site and picking decision. We did not make the picking choice for the fruit that went in to the 2017 Dundee Hills Chardonnay. Some excellent tasters have commented on its higher oak content⌠it was fermented and aged entirely in VERY neutral (4-10 year old) barrique. Smaller vessels mean more evapotranspiration, but more importantly, it was a later pick than we would have chosen (part of our job is about relationships and supporting our farmers, and it was good fruit, even if it was too ripe.)
how hard you press (and with what kind of press) cuz that extracts various phenolics . Oxidizing the must prior to fermentation likely is a factor as well. And I think Diam (and more recent entry, CWine) has proven that the closure and a bottle to bottle consistent oxygen transmission is an important factor.
Also all very good points. We typically press to 1.8-2.0 bar, although we separate the first spin free run juice(it has most of the dust) and will settle the hard press in with it. We also oxidize the juice, and use Diam.
If you donât oxidize the must, then you have to pile on the SO2.
Wine made in California this way in the 70s aged very well. Not my style of wine tho.
All the Chardonnay at Durant is 76, 95 and 96. We get the first two. Draper is hard to come by. It oft times is virus-laden and a potential hazard to get cuttings for grafting. I know. I asked Jason Lett for cuttings for our grafted block of Chardonnay. Second prize was two clones from Brick House Vineyard, so I donât think I lost out in the grand scheme of things! Looking forward to making it this year. Gotta have something to look forward to.
One of the Chardonnay principles I pilfered from Marcus (and others) is the idea that you have to figure out the correct level of grape under-ripeness. Itâs different, really, than Pinot. If youâre picking ripe Chardonnay grapes than you are actually picking overripe Chardonnay grapes. Itâs something Iâm still struggling with 5 vintages into it.
I used to love the single vineyard Chardonnays that Russ Raney used to make at Evesham Wood, and they aged superbly. I put the 1996 Mahonia Vineyard in a blind flight of Corton-Charlemagne, and no one picked it as a ringer. I bought his last few bottles out the cellar door once I tasted it â I think he had 4 left.
I didnât like many Willamette chards in those days â theyâve sure come a long ways. So many good ones to choose from now.
Iâd love to see pinot blanc/bianco develop more in OR as well. Itâs a similar latitude as Trentino-Alto Adige, would be great to have wines of comparable quality produced domestically.
