USA Whites
Grgich Hills Estate Chardonnay 2020 Napa Valley CA, USA
The Grgich Hills Estate is based in Rutherford, Napa Valley, California. Founder Mike Grgich first came to international prominence following the famous 1976 ‘Paris Tasting’ where the ‘73 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, crafted by him, was chosen as the winning white wine against competition from a range of celebrated French white Burgundies and a selection of other Napa Chardonnays. Now with 366 acres under vine, spread across vineyards in Rutherford, Calistoga, Yountville, Los Carneros and American Canyon, Grgich Hills has been farming organically since 2000 and began the move to regenerative farming in 2019.
Besides their famous Chardonnay, they grow Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewürztraminer and, for the reds, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. And their estate is alive with trees, shrubs and flowers amongst the vines, helping to improve the biodiversity of their land as well as manage pests and attract pollinators like bees. They also keep a variety of animals on site: sheep, chickens, ducks and cows to help graze the vineyards and provide a ready source of microbe-rich manure. It’s a classy place and, I’m told, a beautiful one.
As I opened the bottle of their 2020 Chardonnay, I wondered if I’d be able to taste such respect for the land in the glass. I think that the answer to that is a resounding yes! There aren’t many wines that make my eyebrows shoot up into my hairline on first sniff but this is certainly one of them. There’s a vibrancy here and that complex, intriguing quality that only really good wines display.
Soft lemon in colour, it is clear and limpid in the glass – definitely from the ‘pale and interesting’ stable. The first impression on the nose is of its deeply vinous quality. This is no fruity, one-dimensional good-time juice! Instead it’s aiming for the kind of depth of which Chardonnay and only a few other varietals are capable (I’m thinking Pinot Noir, Riesling, Syrah on a good day). Inevitably, it’s white Burgundy that provides the immediate comparator but frankly you’d have to aim quite high in the Côte de Beaune to find anything this good. The complex mix of elegance and ripeness also puts me in mind of South Africa at its best – old world skill mixed with new world freedom. When a wine is this good, however, comparators become a little redundant.
The oak (40% new) comes through first on the nose. But the notes of cedar, Californian almonds, smoke and hints of vanillin are very well integrated with the fruit that works its way from lemon juice through apple/pear to some very nice, warm stone fruit (peach and quince). There’s even a whiff of melon roundness. The fruit is more present on the palate where it forms the basis of a play of sweetness and saltiness – an intriguing minerality and the promise of ripe-fruit sweetness which very soon disappears under intensely elegant dryness. It’s quite a full-bodied wine, but the piquant acidity (no malo here!) makes it super-refreshing at the same time. The long, long finish ends again with melon and peach notes. I suspect there’s some lees action going on as well (unverified) as the lingering finish resolves into a subtle tang. Absolutely no hint of the sad brassica notes of my most recent foray into English Chardonnay …
Far from thin cool-climate Chardonnay, it is also as distant from the big buttery CA blockbusters of yore as you could wish. But there’s an honesty and straightforwardness to the wine that could only be Napa – and my abiding impression is of a clarity of expression and intent. I don't think it too far-fetched to say that it’s same openness that I encountered in talking to Ivo Jeramaz – Grgich Hill’s Winemaker/Vice President of Vineyards & Production – when I interviewed him recently. Maybe it’s because I now know their inspiring story well, but the cleanness and integrity in the wine is palpable. According to the guys in the winery, 2020 was one of the hottest vintages to date, multiple heat waves and really low rain fall. But their organic-regenerative approach (with the help of cooling fogs from San Francisco bay no doubt) saw them ride this out with style. Although yields were low, you can taste the quality of the grapes in every glass. It would still put a lot of white Burgundies to shame.
Elk Cove Estate Riesling 2020 Willamette Valley USA
Oregon’s Willamette Valley sits in the north of the state sandwiched between the Cascade Mountains to the east and the Costal Range to the west. This is Pinot Noir territory, but white grapes have also carved out a home – Pinot Gris and Chardonnay for example. There are also significant plantings of Riesling, although on a much smaller scale than Washington State to the north.
This 2020 100% varietal Riesling is from the family-owned Elk Cove who have been making wine in the area since the 1970s. Grapes from what are now some of the oldest Riesling vines in the state are hand-picked and pressed in whole clusters, a process that aims to produce particularly high-quality juice that is low in phenolics (colour, tannin and some flavour compounds). The resulting juice is then fermented at cool temperatures in stainless-stell tanks with the aim of retaining freshness and varietal character.
Pale lemon in colour, the wine gives off a heady Kerosene puff on opening. This petrol-like quality comes from a compound called TDN which can be up to six times higher in Riesling than in other varieties according to the Australian Wine Research Institute. Here, its intensity levels out as the wine opens up in glass but it remains an important part of the profile underlying the predominantly citrus aromas. I puzzled for some time over the exact nature of the citrus on display here: its very force makes it somewhat elusive. Sour and pleasantly bitter notes predominate: quite a specific mix of pure lemon juice, a little zest and the fragrance of lemon grass. There’s lime too, although not in the levels you would expect from Southern Australian Rieslings.
A ghost of sweetness gives an almost lemon-drop quality which is very appealing. Grapefruit as well, but again it reads more as a grapefruit + barley sugar rather than the searing sourness of fresh fruit. In addition, there are sweeter fruits but the acidity pulls them back from fully ripe expression into barely ripe nectarine and melon rind. There’s a hint of sweet/sour quince too.
The palate is more expressive than the nose with the wine’s initial fruit sweetness receding quickly into dryness. Registering somewhere towards the top end of dry, the wine has some weight in the mouth: still light and fresh it has a good, full mouthfeel. There’s a slight smoky, slate quality that extends to the texture – initially silky and then a little chewy, not fat chewy but more of a mineral drag in the mouth. The high acidity and rapier-like fruit makes for a wine that is as taut as a wire: linear and single-minded. Not thereby lacking in complexity but with a very focused delivery. It has a long finish that maintains this sweet/sour dialogue, resolving finally into sour apple sweets.
I was left with the feeling I’d just encountered a hugely interesting wine: more daring and less harmonious perhaps than more traditional German, Alsatian or Aussie expressions. Is it enough to divert me from the Mosel or Clare Valley on a permanent basis? No. But it makes a fascinating alternative that showcases another side of Riesling.
