Sips: From California, Gainey Vineyard’s 2010 Chardonnay

As I’ve said before, I prefer leaner-style chardonnays with moderate levels of alcohol and subtle oak treatment. There’s nothing wrong with those brawny, buttery wines, but in general they’re not my cup of tea. Gainey Vineyard in California’s Santa Barbara County makes chardonnay in this leaner style. It is consistently good, and the 2010 Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay is no exception.

 

As always, the wine is beautifully balanced, and in this vintage it presents a delicious combination of Bartlett pear, butterscotch, citrus and a touch of cinnamon. Try it with all kinds of fish, chicken and pork dishes or enjoy it on its own. Alcohol is 13.9 percent and the suggested price of $22 makes it a very good value worth seeking out. Gainey’s website says it’s sold out at the winery, but I imagine it’s around in any number of stores. Received as a press sample.

Sips: At $20, a top red blend from California’s Beckmen Vineyards

Photo: Edward Deitch/Vint-ed.com

One of the better California reds I have tasted this year sells for a modest $20 and really over-delivers on value and interest. Beckmen Vineyards, a gorgeous, rolling property in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, produces a range of red and white wines, mainly from Rhone varieties. While Beckmen’s single-varietal reds made from grenache and syrah come into their own after some bottle aging, its newly released red blend, the 2010 Cuvee Le Bec, is already drinking beautifully. This estate wine is made from 44 percent syrah, 34 percent grenache, 13 percent counoise, mourvedre and 9 percent counoise. It’s grapey and concentrated with sweet blackberry, blackcurrant and boysenberry fruit and secondary notes of cinnamon and unsweetened cocoa. Oak is nicely integrated and the wine is moderately tannic. Alcohol is listed as 14 percent. All and all it’s a pleasure to drink. Consider it for leg of lamb, pulled pork and and even burgers on the grill. Received as a press sample.

Daily Sip: From California, Gainey Vineyard’s 2009 Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir

I’ve been a fan of Gainey Vineyard for some time, and this latest release only reinforces my view of the winery in the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara County. The wine could serve as a  blueprint for how to produce reasonably priced (around $30)California pinot noir with balance and finesse. It all but jumps out of the glass with its lively acidity, delicious red fruit and moderate alcohol (13.9 percent), which make it a superb food partner that will match well with any number of dishes. In my notes, I described it as a “lean, lighter style” of pinot noir with lots of berry tastes – cranberry, raspberry, blueberry – along with cherry and punctuated by cinnamon and vanilla notes. Though it was aged for 17 months in French oak, only 22 percent of the barrels were new, so the oak influence is kept in check. These days, many California and Oregon pinot noirs are made in a dense fruit-high alcohol style that requires some effort to drink. Gainey’s pinot noir is a welcome exception. Wine received as a press sample.

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Sips: A roundup of notable new wines from France, California and Argentina

Since I’ve been leaning heavily toward wine news in recent weeks, I thought I would share some exciting new releases that will make for excellent spring and summer drinking. With one exception, all the wines are under $20. Also of note, given my piece earlier this week about alcohol levels, four of the five wines here are under 14 percent, which, no doubt, is part of why I enjoyed them.

Bieler Père et Fils 2010 “Sabine” Coteaux d-Aix-en-Provence Rosé. $12. This appealing and well-priced rosé  demands food with its considerable herb notes that punctuate strawberry, raspberry, citrus and subtle vanilla tastes. With its pretty, light-salmon color it shows considerable complexity and came into its own the herb-roasted chicken. The  blend is 50 percent syrah, 30 percent grenache and 20 percent cabernet sauvignon. Alcohol is 13.5 percent. Imported by Bieler Père et Fils, Sausalito, California.

Alta Maria Vineyards 2009 Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley, California. $28. This superb chardonnay from Santa Barbara County shows perfect balance, with pear, white peach, orange and lime, plus subtle vanilla and cream notes. Oak is seamlessly integrated. The fruit was sourced from the famed Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills Vineyards and the wine bears their unmistakable signature. Alcohol is 14.1 percent.

Carmel Road 2009 Chardonnay, Monterey County, California. $18. A beautifully balanced chardonnay with nuanced oak, pear, vanilla and a hint of orange. Effortless to drink and a real value. Alcohol is 13.5 percent.

Domaine de la Madone 2009 Beaujolais “Le Perreon,” Beaujolais Villages, France. $15. This first-rate Beaujolais from an excellent vintage is distinguished by the unusual concentration of its fruit, mainly blueberry and black cherry, with an appealing note of braised meat that adds to its complexity. From the gamay grape, it’s the kind of red wine I could drink all summer. Alcohol is 13 percent. Imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, New York

Argento 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendoza, Argentina. $11. An excellent budget cabernet with classic blackberry tastes joined by plum and red berry notes as the wine opens up, revealing surprising complexity. Smoke, cinnamon and brown sugar round things out, all of it framed by a good tannic structure. Should serve as a wake-up call to California for what’s being produced elsewhere for $10 or so. Alcohol is 13.5 percent. Imported by Lion Nathan USA, Overland Park, Kansas.

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SIPS: An unusual California offering -- white wines from Dierberg and Star Lane released with a little bottle age

Something quite different arrived at my door the other day. As part of a sampling of new releases from a California producer, the two white wines in the shipment caught my eye because of their vintages. One was a chardonnay and the other was a sauvignon blanc. While most chardonnays being released right now are from 2009 or perhaps 2008, this one was from 2007. While almost all the sauvignons I receive are from the ‘09 vintage (some 2010s from the Southern Hemisphere are also now being released) this  one was from 2008. Most chardonnays, of course, will benefit from some bottle age and some of the great ones from Burgundy and California can develop for years. While sauvignon blancs are typically enjoyed young, they, too, can develop in the bottle.

And so it was that I tasted these two wines from Dierberg Estate Vineyards in Santa Barbara County on different evenings. The first was Dierberg Estate’s 2007 Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay. Made in a bright, fruit-forward style, this wine is a model of balance at this point with subtle, well-integrated oak treatment (just 40 percent of the blend was aged in new oak). There’s lots of complexity here with notes of lime and orange, tropical fruit, ginger, vanilla and a nice underlying minerality. Quite Burgundian in character with superb acidity and alcohol of 14.1 percent. The wine would be superb with all kinds of white meats and elegant fish dishes. It was one of my favorite chardonnays of the past year and is well worth the $32 price.

Dierberg’s sister property, Star Lane Vineyard, focuses on Bordeaux varieties in the relatively warm eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, and its 2008 Santa Ynez Valley Sauvignon Blanc is  also notable for its balanced approach to a variety that often presents itself in extremes – exceedingly racy, as in many New Zealand sauvignons, or as sauvignon hiding in chardonnay clothing, which is sometimes the case with California sauvignons. Star Lane offers a delicious middle ground in this $20 wine with muted notes of pink grapefruit, lemon curd and lime and lots of minerals on the long finish. Acidity is very ample, in this one as well, and alcohol is listed at 13.4 percent.

Beyond modest levels of alcohol and releasing their white wines with a little age, the Dierberg wines are made with an emphasis on native yeasts, all of which combine to make them distinct and memorable.

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Sips: an exciting new twist for California’s Bien Nacido Vineyard

Until now, the name "Bien Nacido Vineyard" was found only on other people's wine labels. The famed vineyard located in the Santa Maria Valley of California's Santa Barbara County is the source of grapes for many well-known wineries that turn to Bien Nacido for its exceptional fruit. Much of that fruit, as I saw for myself on a visit to Bien Nacido a few years ago, is grown on fairly steep mountain vineyards in the cool-climate region, a combination that gives the wines both opulence and finesse. Wineries that draw on Bien Nacido read like a who's who of notable properties in the region: Ojai, Qupé, Au Bon Climat, Byron, Fess Parker, Villa Mt. Eden, Longoria, to name just some of them. Typically on the labels of these wineries you’ll see the Bien Nacido Vineyard designation. It’s a kind of badge of honor.

Now, for the first time, Bien Nacido is bottling wines, three of them, under its own labels – I say labels because two of the wines, a pinot noir and a syrah, are from the Bien Nacido Vineyard itself while a third, a chardonnay, is from the nearby Solomon Hills Vineyard, which Bien Nacido owns.

Sips: California chardonnay the way we like it

I’ve just tasted a couple of superb new California chardonnays in a crisp, cool-climate style that makes them delightfully refreshing and easy to enjoy their complexity and sophistication. Both are from Rusack Vineyards, which I’ve written about before and is located in Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County. This area produces some of California’s most exciting chardonnays, notable for their exceptional balance produced in part by the cooling influences of the nearby Pacific Ocean. 

The wines reminded me of my visit to this breathtaking region three and a half years ago during which I got to sample a fair number of chardonnays, pinot noirs, syrahs and other wines (my MSNBC.com column on the area and an accompanying video won a James Beard Award). The Rusack chardonnays immediately brought to mind some of the wines I tasted from fruit grown in  the famed Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley, which I visited on that trip and which for years has been supplying grapes to some of the region’s most notable wineries. And so I wasn’t at all surprised when I read that a good deal of the fruit for both Rusack chardonnays came from Bien Nacido (as well as the Sierra Madre Vineyard).

Rusack’s 2008 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay, a bargain at $23, shows a delicious combination of Meyer lemon, pear and a bit of vanilla reflecting judicious use of oak aging. The 2008 Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay Resreve is a bit richer, showing those same flavor profiles, along with some pineapple, a spicy note and a good deal of minerality on its long finish (2,228 cases produced). A much greater percentage of the Reserve wine is aged in new oak, giving it that spice and a bit more fullness. It’s $36 with just 338 cases produced. Alcohol in both wines is listed at at a moderate 14.2 percent. With their limited production, I suspect that a visit to Rusack’s Web site may be the preferred method of buying the wines. (Wines received as press samples.)

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A Winning California blend

I’m sipping a very nice California blend tonight that is almost Bordeaux-like in its elegance. It’s the 2007 Blues Cuvee from Longoria Wines in Santa Barbara County. And yes, the label has a very cool painting of a guitar-strumming bluesman on the label. But that’s beside the point. The wine is a winning  blend of 31 percent cabernet franc, 27 percent merlot, 24 percent syrah and 18 percent cabernet sauvignon.

Notes of dried red-berry fruit, coffee bean and herbs are supported by good tannic structure and great balancing acidity that make it a pleasure to drink even with a high 14.8 percent alcohol (other California wineries please take note).  It sells for $28 and with production at just 150 cases, you’ll want to buy it directly from the winery.  Also check out Longoria’s crisp, refreshing 2008 Albarino-Clover Creek Vineyard, a lovely California take on the Spanish-Portugese variety, at $23. (Wines received as press samples.)

California pinot gris

 

Pinot gris, or pinot grigio as it's called in Italy, has firmly established itself as one of California's "other whites," and for me it can offer a pleasant and useful alternative to the ubiquitous chardonnay.

If you haven't tried the variety in a while, the 2008 Pinot Gris from TAZ Vineyards in Santa Barbara County is a good way to get reacquainted. Medium-bodied and focused, it has tastes of pear, pineapple, a touch of white pepper and minerals on the long finish. About $15.