American Chardonnay: “simple, sweet, alcoholic and false.” WSJ

WINE TALK
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Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher used their Friday WSJ column to blast a hole in the side of the barrel that is American Chardonnay, calling it, “simple, sweet, alcoholic and false.” Moreover, much of the pricey stuff isn’t getting discounted, as many other expensive wines are. They write:

So, did we find great bargains? No. We did not find cutthroat competition on price among higher-end American Chardonnay. It’s as if most wine stores these days are like developers who built homes on spec and now refuse to lower prices even in the face of weak demand. More important, most of the wines themselves weren’t good values at any price. They were too often disappointing, with too much oak, too little fruit and little care. Too many tasted like stagnant water, like pickling spices, or like vanilla flavorings added to water. They were not pleasant to drink on their own and would not pair well with any food…

We wondered, honestly, who they think their market is and we finally realized that many high-end American Chardonnays have become the Cadillac of the wine world. Their core audience is older, moneyed and comfortable with the names they’ve come to know. As a result, too many Chardonnay producers have decided that, as long as the bottle is just as heavy and the label is just as nice, they can take advantage of those customers by shirking on quality. But even General Motors decided, in the long run, that Cadillac needed more attention—not to mention younger buyers. We don’t believe that the current business model for most producers of higher-end American Chardonnay will work in the long run. We hope not.

Yeeow! What do you think–where is American Chardonnay right now in the new oak backlash? Why so few discounts of pricey Chards–strong consumer demand or a lack of willingness to cut prices?

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I’m certainly not a fan of American Chardonnay, for the same reasons shown in the article.

As to your last question, I’d say that it is because they don’t feel the need to yet - the pressure is not on pricey (overpriced) CA Chardonnay yet, as the buying public is still there buying it up! Obviously retailers should speak to it, but if there is no noticeable price decrease on high priced CA Chards, in a market where everything from Syrah to Bordeaux to Chablis is getting discounted, there must be a reason, and I can’t see anything other than ‘we don’t have to’ as a likely reason.

3

As long as wineries and retailers can sell “Americanized” Chard at high prices…why not? Pricey wines are better right? Americans seem to expect their quality Chards to be big, ripe, fat, and oaky. Even better if the alcohol pushes 14%+ and the critics heap on some points. There’s good American Chard but it requires searching. Staying open minded about Cult Cali Chards is tough, in general…I just don’t get them. There’re even a few decent East Coast versions. Easier to find French.

Tonight I tried the 2007 Roulot Bougogne Blanc…very lovely young Meursault character, traces of gunpowder, and a wonderful citrus finish. Excellent QPR for $25-ish. Values like this make it hard to want to search for US gems.

RT

4

If a chard is over 35% new oak, my wife is not even interested in trying it anymore.

It was so nice in Italy this summer drinking these beautiful white wines with mostly neutral oak and about 11-11.5% alcohol. Perhaps since that’s the type of wine I started drinking so many years ago, it is still my favorite.

I can’t remember the last CA chard I personally bought.

5

Painting with broad strokes?

They should have interviewed me.

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you will be in the next addition of their search for “bargains in high-end American wines.”

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I just do not understand where they gather their data from.

8

It’s hard to get a grip on this article since they didn’t mention which Chards they didn’t like…

TTT

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You are completely correct, Mr. Galli.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines

10

More stupid, reactionary, knee-jerk bullshit from that egregious, destructive, people-hating print media propaganda machine that lies, it lies!

OK, political screed over (for now… grrrr… they’re trying to destroy the country…) headbang

OK, OK, I’ll stop.

I disagree. How easy it is to retreat to old slogans and banners: California chardonnay is all oak! All butter! Shit, it’s just [popcorn.gif] with EtOH. Bad winemaking. No terroir. Not enough acid. Lousy with food. It’s not like Burgundy, which is what chardonnay is and should be.

I’m sorry, for my palate that’s just wrong, because well-made California chardonnay proves it’s wrong.

No, it’s not Burgundy, and why should it be? The best of the California-style chards use the grapes as nature makes them out here, and the best winemakers craft fantastic wines with the right touch of oak to give a complete, full, harmonious wine experience that I find satisfying on all counts. And these are wines that go well with food.

To be sure, I enjoy the California style of less oak and greater ‘transparency’, as I think of it, more in the style of burgundy. Arcadian, often Dehlinger, for example (Dehlinger makes fantastic chardonnay, sometimes of the more transparent style, sometimes a somewhat bigger style… great producer).

And yes yes yes yes, to be sure, there are chardonnays made with too much oak that just become unbalanced and clumsy. Most great winemakers have done this, how can they not once in a while? Winemaking isn’t an objective science, even with all the numbers. It’s an art and a craft. So yes, I’ve had low to high end chards, even Kistlers and Auberts, that have too much oak in the overall balance… although sometimes with time that gets managed with time in the bottle.

But when we have great California chards, proudly California chards, nice, substantial wines that pair with almost any food, and that are balanced along the entire spectrum of flavors, including minerality: Chasseur, Eric Kent (although they have to dial back the oak a little more, I think), Walter Hansel, Hartford Court, Mount Eden, Ramey, Scholium, Varner, and yes, Kistler and Aubert, well, I’ll take those any day over insipid, thin, bad burgundy where such flaws get passed off as demonstrating terroir, minerality and elegance. And, I haven’t yet had Kongsgaard (however you spell it), or Peter Michaels, or lots of other top producers I’ve only read about.

Chardonnay from Burgundy can be transcendent, especially when aged, oh my lord, yes. And I’ve had great bourgognes right in the price sweet spot that have been absolutely satisfying. But I’ve pretty much stopped buying it at prices over $20, not only because of the pox, but because I find it easier and less expensive to find more satisfying chardonnay from California. And frankly, the same goes for pinot… Not because I like sweet candy alcohol, but because if you pick and choose carefully, the best California burgundian varietal wines are well-balanced while still being on the bigger side, yet still crafted with finesse and care. My greatest regret is that the financial mess has decimated my wine-buying, and I can’t buy all the California chard and pinot that I’d like to (along with the rhone wines, lower-end bordeaux, crisp, minerally whites from burgundy, Italy, and other places around the world etc etc etc…)

OK, I’m done. Pass the Aubert, please.

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Wow…Barney…tell us how you really feel!!

Like you…I get so tired of that shop-worn characterization of Calif Chard as buttery & over-oaked. Don’t take much looking
around to find some that don’t fit that paradigm. Had a Failla last week that was sooo minerally. From Ehren’s extreme
SonomaCoast Estate. There are plenty of others out there.

We need to get together again & share some bottles, Barney.

Tom

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i’d suggest they try some Ceritas or a Hanzell with some age.

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I used to think I knew about oak in Chardonnay but the more I taste the more I realize that the new oak number means bupkis. There’s a lot more to it than how much is new wood is used. I’ve tasted wines from many styles that I would have guessed had no wood on them only to find they have a fairly high percentage. I’ve also tasted some with barely any wood on them that tasted like wood sticks with vanilla sauce on them. I’m starting to think its mostly the malo and ripeness that gets me.

14

Because that is your specialty? neener

I know less than nothing about American chards, but it would surprise me if there weren’t (a) excellent wines to be had and (b) bargains to be had. If you looked, that is.

Gene, love the dancing avatar!

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I think that John & Dottie’s schtick is that they ONLY purchase off of retail shelves.

I.e. no mailing lists, no visits to wineries, no special samples from reps, etc.

In other words, they are trying to recreate the experience of the average Joe wine drinker who walks into a bottle shop and looks for a wine to drink with a nice dinner or to drink for a special occasion.

In general [& typically], I think that our state’s entire allocation [for more than 9 million people] of something like Arcadian Sleepy Hollow or Fisher Mountain is going to be all of about a single case.

[And, although it’s not chardonnay, I was told that Robert Sinskey didn’t even ship any Vin Gris to us this year.]

Which means that no more than about one in a million people [literally] is going to get a chance to try those wines [at least off of retail shelves or off of restaurant wine lists].

Anyway, you have to remind yourself that John & Dottie are not dealing with any theoretically possible wine selection that they COULD be encountering but rather that they have constrained themselves to deal with only the actual real-world wine selection that they ARE encountering.

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Also, the degree of toasting in the barrels could make a big difference.

In general, 100% new oak lightly toasted is probably going to taste a lot different than 100% new oak heavily toasted.

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Well, they didn’t give examples of the wines they didn’t like, and the list of wines on the left puts Pahlmeyer Chard. at the “top” of the list. One wonders what retail sources they used. I suspect a trip to a store like the Wine Exchange would have produced a somewhat different article.

Bruce

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Nathan:

Amen on your comments! It goes with my comments on the syrah article. Of all the wines rattled off in the posts before you, how many of those wines can you find on a retail shelf. Zero! headbang . Two quick stories:

  1. I was visiting a customer in a town in the mid-South of about 100K people. He took me into the “best wine shop” in the town. The selection was horrible. 90% of the wine was plonk ( or Yellow Tail). The nicest wine in the entire store was Alex. Valley Silver Oak. It was listed for $130 bucks! I said that wine retails at $65 bucks. The mgr said, "Yeah I could sell twice as much at $65, but I won’t make as much money off it as I do now. The docs and lawyers get desperate for decent wine and pay whatever I charge. My customer has to drive about 120 miles to a major metro area to get any good selection of wine.
  2. I was in Manhattan a couple of weeks back and was meeting a customer for drinks before dinner at his house. I thought I would buy him a nice bottle of wine, as a gift, which he could open or not before we went out. I was amazed at how many blocks, in uptown Manhattan, I had to walk before I found a good wine store. I walked by multiple places, over mutilple blocks, that sold the same crappy wines as in the same mid-South town. While walking, I was wondering where Posner’s store was!

Everyone has to remember that quite a few States still do not allow shipping of wine into the State and the only wine selection is what the retail stores offer. I have to drive 20 minutes, in a major metro area, to get adequate selection, and 45 minutes to get a good selection of wine. I’m thankful we can get direct shipments from the wineries. But that doesn’t work for everything.

Here’s the real facts, which Nathan pointed out. Ninety+ percent of the people only drink what’s available to them at their LWS. Most people are not going to drive 45 minutes, one way, to buy wine. The sample tasted by the WSJ crew truly reflects the options available of the vast majority of wine drinkers. In most part, that is the wine handled through Constellation and the other six major booze houses.

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In my mind it is about fruit sources rather than the actual wood. That’s from winemakers talking about how that fruit ‘sucks up the oak’ in reference to such wines. I think the trope that its the oak ruining California Chardonnay is so ingrained in our heads that we have often assume that is the case when we don’t like a certain wine. I’m just more and more certain that we need to look at them on a case to case basis and pay closer attention to what we are actually tasting.

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Gordon

You would have had to walk for another 20 miles from uptown.

The really bad over oaked Chards are in Long Island, not California.

Some of their articles are interesting, but I reasd them less and less over the years to nearly nothing now.

TO make these broad generalizations without providing examples is of no help to their readers, unless their goal is to ensure their readers never buy CA Chard again, which would be just silly.