“Nooooooooooo Austin! I can’t live without your wine blog! Don’t abandon me for 6 weeks!”
Calm down, calm down, REMAIN CALM. The good thing is we party in the Catholic Church all the time. Every Sunday throughout the year is a Solemnity. Additionally, in the US we have 5 or 6 (depending on what diocese you’re in) holy days of obligation not always on Sunday that are Solemnities. Furthermore, we have 9 others or so for a total of…like 67 party days during the year! (That’s not even including Feast days mind you but those don’t lift penitent days) So, we at least have the Sundays during Lent to indulge in some wine/comforts and luckily, one of those other Solemnities is always in the season of Lent as far as I can remember: The Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19 (on a Monday this year)! I will probs have to write up something special for y’all for that but in the meantime, we are starting off strong with the Solemnity of the First Sunday of Lent.
As all Solemnities are the highest form of Feasts, I made a slight amendment to my segment title. Happy #WineFeastDay! This one comes courtesy of Alex (Ale-Ale-jandro). He has gifted me a wine I have been meaning to try forever but never got around to it and one he absolutely loves (so go buy him a case!)…It’s Kendall-Jackson’s Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay!
Winery: Kendall-Jackson
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Region: California (47% Monterey, 30% Santa Barbara, 22% Mendocino, 1% Sonoma)
Country: USA
Vintage: 2016
Price: $15 or so
Aging: 5 months in French and American oak (11% new); sur lie
BACKGROUND
Mmmmm Chardonnay…a refined choice for white wine and usually the only white that reds-only-winos will drink regularly. Why? Well, because it can pretty much behave as red wine anyways if it’s from the right place (lololol cheaters). Yes, Chardonnay can go with anything from salad to steak.
“Whawhawhaaaaaa??? I’m sorry…hehe…I thought you just said white wine can go with steak. *aside* What an idiot.”
Y’all need to calm down and give it a try. And by the way this is no secret. Sauternes (a white Bordeaux mainly made with Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc) in various styles FROM THE SAME CHATEAU can go with any course of a meal, including gamey meat. Hopefully Punxsutawney Phil was wrong and we can go grilling outside sometime soon to try this out. Yupyup it all depends on terroir, oaking, and quality of fruit. Chardonnay can be crisp, cool and zesty; bigger, buttery and oaked; or it can be Blanc de Blancs Champagne…it’s all the same grape. My favorite rendition is more of a light-leaning-mix: a neutral oaked (or unoaked) Chardonnay which has gone through malolactic fermentation (buttery taste)...*currently salivating* it usually goes great with a lighter chicken dish especially if it has an herby tone.
 |
| Chardy-Char in the field. |
“So how do I know if it’s a light, acidic Chardonnay, or a big oaked one? You’re making me nervous that I screwed up my dinner party pairings last week…”
Ok, there are a ton of factors that go into this but at the root of it is this: You probs aren’t going to purchase a good one of these big-boy-pants Chardonnays for less than $15. New oak costs a lot of money and is only used to enhance great fruit from good vintages. That being said, there are other ways to skin a cat. The wine doesn’t necessarily have to be an alcoholic bomb with heavy oak to sit next to a steak. For instance, acidity or residual sugar can also play a (lesser) part in balancing a fatty meal (remember my Auslese Riesling that worked well with kielbasa at Christmas?).
“Ok, but what if I am going to spend more money? Are all expensive Chardonnays big?”
Aber nein! This now depends on what region the wine is expensive from. Here is a basic run down of lighter style regions and heavier style regions. Unfortunately, it is not super simple as Chardonnay is grown everywhere (one of the top 5 most planted grapes in the world). The overall trend is: cooler climates make lighter Chardonnay, and relatively warmer ones make bigger.
LIGHT/CRISP, ACIDIC, CITRUSY, GREEN APPLE, MINERAL: Loire Valley and Chablis (France), Sonoma Coast* (Cali), Western Australia, Colchagua and Casablanca (Chile), Oregon
*Note that “Coast.” NOT necessarily the entire county.
FULL, OAKED, BUTTERY, VANILLA, CREAMY, RIPE: Napa and Paso Robles and Lake County (Cali), Mendoza (Argentina), Southern and Eastern Australia, Puglia (Italy), the rest of Burgundy besides Chablis (France)
“So, why Kendall-Jackson?”
Honestly, why not? Voted winery of the year and they are somehow able to crack the wine spectator top 100 wines every year while only staying around the $15-20 mark. Their 2015 VR Chardonnay is #28 this year so credit Alex Gano for having a nose for great value.
It all started with Chardonnay there. In 1983, Jess Jackson sold the first case of this very namesake Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay at Grand Central Station in NYC. The first grapes were grown in Lake County just north of Napa Valley. Jess’ first batch won the first-ever Platinum Award for an American Chardonnay. That basically tells you all you need to know. They have been good from the start, and they’re affordable.
They get French oak barrels from their co-owned French cooperage. They are continually pushing the boundaries on sustainability in their farming. They teamed up with Tesla a few years back to modify their power grid to rely heavily on solar power. They basically just get all the awards. They now stretch all over California, but their main estate sits in Sonoma.
 |
| Cali wine regions. |
You may be thinking, “Whelp, these are some great awards and all but I saw only 1% of the grapes are from Sonoma and NONE from Napa. There’s no way this wine can be Wine Spectator Top 100 if it doesn’t have the prestige…”
Why is everyone raggin’ on Monterey? It, Santa Barbara and Mendocino are all well-established places too. Allow me to put you at ease:
“Isn’t a Mendocino like a pepper or a cherry or something? This place can’t possibly be good for winemaking.” Au contraire…Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is top shelf stuff and K-J tends to stick to that theme of growing great Pinot here across Mendocino. Where Pinot grows well, there also can be found Chardonnay. No surprise K-J has set up shop for some of their Chardonnay and most of their Pinot production here.
 |
| North Coast focus. Note locations relative to coast. |
 |
| Mendocino! |
Santa Barbara is where we start to see a lot of Chardonnay production. “But why? It’s close to LA and southern California gets pretty sweltering Austin. I thought you wanted a cooler climate.” Ahhhh, you are correct (for once…jklol<3), BUT the most important fact here is that the valleys are aligned west to east (perpendicular to part of the coast, a geological oddity). “So?” So, the cool ocean breezes sweep through the entire region and that is somehow amazing for unique Chardonnay (and also for a few rare cooler-climate plantings like Gamay and Gruner Vertliner).
 |
| Santa Barbara. Note the mountain ridge lines. |
Lastly, we have Monterey. “Yes, one of those Jack cheeses.” You got it. Franciscan friars started making wine here along with that cheese. It is now one of the biggest producers by volume of wine in California. This earns them a distinction for bulk wine production. Like Santa Barbara, they also have a cool geological feature. The “Blue Grand Canyon” lies just off-shore (a super deep oceanic-trench). All that cold water really affects the climate. Temperatures are all over the place, sometimes varying between 2 points in the region by 40 degrees any given day. This gives an amazing variety of growing conditions for all different types of grapes to find a home. There is a distinct home for A LOT of good Chardonnay. Now, who really knows if K-J uses these vineyards for cheap bulk to keep the prices down or not, but I like to hope they give us some of that quality fruit.
 |
| Blue Grand Canyon influence on Monterey. |
 |
| A K-J vineyard in Monterey. |
“Alright, you said these places give a hint to the style of Chardonnay. What’s the verdict?”
Whelp, now that I’m on the spot I don’t want to be wrong haha. *aside* I could just taste it first and no one would ever know…BUT I WON’T! This blog is as much about me learning as you learning. Hmmmmmmmm…so this is what’s going on in my mind in no particular order: Santa Barbara is a wild card and I don’t have experience with it. 5 months and 11% new oak ain’t anything to write home about but certainly has an effect. No malolactic fermentation. Sur lie…ALRIGHT! My amateur opinion is this: I expect it to be a fruit forward wine…yellow and maybe tropical. Good bit of alcohol. Decently acidic but not sharp like a granny smith (expecting a bit of rounded creaminess from the oaking and sur lie). Oaky undertones will be there but won’t be terribly spicy…more vanilla-y. I have a strange feeling it will remind me of buttered banana bread haha (or maybs just hoping cuz that sounds delicious). Overall a sort of medium-plus Chardonnay. Let’s see how I fare...
REVIEW
Sniff: … … … WHAT IS THAT SMELL I’M SMELLING?! This happens to all of us all the time and such is the case again here. It is triggering some sort of smell memory in me but I don’t know what it is. Um…it’s like a spicy pineapple? Apricot? Grassy/herby. Smells pretty crisp honestly. Has a nice whiff of vanilla cream at the end that I didn’t notice until now. Really really nice smelling wine.
Taste: Hmmm. It slithers right in with a honey-like feel BUT THEN ATTACKS with some alcohol and a strange sort of acid-spice on the back end. Give it a little swish and some oxygen and fruit takes the melody with a lighter backdrop (the oaky baking spice seems to exit). Body: thick-skinned for white. Acid: not loud but there…balanced. Residual Sugar: on the drier side of life. There is some ever so slight tannin action. If you really let it sit I think a sort of candied apple taste comes out. It has a noticeable finish. The fruit just sort of lingers…but it changes. For the most part a golden apple taste is there BUT if you breathe with your mouth open for a bit I think it changes to a toasty coconut...call me crazy, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Overall a lovely, balanced wine. The balance really gives it a ton of points in my book; everything but the spice was in harmony. By itself it is certainly enjoyable but my opinion is this wine was made with food in mind because of the spice. Hawaiian chicken or Pork with a fruity sauce may be a good area to explore. I doubt it can take a steak but I unless we try we'll never know... I would say my guess of the Chardonnay style was in the ballpark. I think I overplayed the creamy vanilla as it was only there in the smell. I underplayed the oaking. It was a leading presence in the smell and taste. Wait until spring cleaning to enjoy this bottle with a nice meal!
Rating: 8.7232156 / 10
Value: $$$ / 5, borderline $$$$ if it goes well with food
______________________________________________
cred
http://www.kj.com/
http://winefolly.com/review/chardonnay-wine-guide/
http://winefolly.com/review/an-intro-to-santa-barbara-wine-country/
http://www.latimes.com/brandpublishing/travelplus/monterey/la-ss-mcvb-move-over-napa-monterey-is-california-s-wine-hot-spot-20151005dto-story.html
https://montereywines.org/vineyards/blue-grand-canyon/
yay
ReplyDelete