In an interview on the UC Davis Library website, Darrell Corti discussed the history of Chardonnay grape-growing and wine production.
The earlier part of the conversation focuses on California’s wine history and industry practices, while the latter half shifts to elements of botany and clone material selection.
UC Davis Library
News
“Darrell Corti on California Chardonnay”
Interview by Leyla Cabugos, Jullianne Ballou, & Bryan Lairmore
November 2, 2020
“…In 2019 Plant Sciences Librarian Leyla Cabugos, Warren Winiarski Fellow Jullianne Ballou, and Viticulture & Enology master’s student Bryan Lairmore interviewed [Darrell] Corti about the history of California Chardonnay. That interview is excerpted here, thanks to Jean-Jacques Surbeck, who helped transcribe the audio.”
"Leyla Cabugos: ‘Darrell, you’ve said before that in 1960s California there is no love for Chardonnay. What did you mean by that?’
"Darrell Corti: ‘If you go back and look at what was written in the reports of UC Davis to the Board of Regents, or to the legislature, there are really no great comments about Pinot Chardonnay. The thing that’s interesting is there are no real great comments because of the fact that it was considered a very difficult grape variety. It was difficult to grow. It didn’t produce very much. And why would you actually want to grow a grape variety that didn’t produce?’
"Jullianne Ballou: ‘Wasn’t Chardonnay more successful in Livermore than in Napa?’
"Darrell Corti: 'You also have the distinction in the various growing areas. Very early on, there was already a distinction made. Even the Italian, Guido Rosati, who from 1896 to ’97 made his trip through the United States, which he then wrote about in Relazione di un viaggio d’istruzione negli Stati Uniti d’America — he wrote more about wineries south of San Francisco — Livermore, Palo Alto, that area — and wineries in Sonoma than he did about wineries in Napa Valley.
"‘At the time, there wasn’t a great deal of interest in white Burgundies. There was much more interest in things like Chablis, actually. Why? Chablis was considered a very special wine because of its flavor. There was one point where, because of wine writers (Parker at the top of the list), Chablis stopped being Chablis. And it became sort of quasi–white Burgundy.’
"‘…The thing that’s really interesting is if you look at the very old descriptions (from Hilgard and Bioletti) about why these grape varieties were planted and wine was made out of them — they never say anything about Chardonnay. They don’t talk much about it because it wasn’t distinctive enough. They do talk a lot about German wines.’
"Leyla Cabugos: ‘Is there a relationship between Eleanor McCrea’s assertion that the best Chardonnays are 100% with the rising prominence of single varietals in California?’
"Darrell Corti: 'This is a many-pronged answer. Sauvignon blanc is easy to produce. Because it’s highly distinctive. The university was charged with recommending grapes that would produce highly distinctive wines. That’s why they came out with [u]Grape Varieties and Wine Production[/u]. If you read its preface — the grape varieties recommended for planting (or not planting) in California — the recommendation is for varieties that are highly distinctive. Varieties that made red wine that were sort of anonymous— very much like Napa Valley Cabernet is becoming now — were just “red.”
"'…Lee Stewart made a very famous wine. It was extraordinarily famous — sold like hell. It was called Green Hungarian. And he said the best Green Hungarian is made with as little Green Hungarian as possible. Those were the days when wines, to be labeled a varietal wine, had to be 51% of the variety. Then came the days in the Napa Valley when they wanted to make varietal wines with one hundred percent of the variety. Louis Martini came out with the statement, “Well what happens when they have to blend?” You know, you have to make good wine. Sometimes a single-variety wine is not such a good wine.
“‘…Getting back to Chardonnay: a Pinot Chardonnay from Wente was the most expensive wine in California in those days. It sold for $2.10 a bottle. André Tchelistcheff told me, “When I came to California, the finest white wine I ever tasted was Wente Chardonnay, 1936 vintage.” It was a very famous wine because it then went on to win medals at the various tastings. There was a tasting in 1939, at the World’s Fair on Treasure Island, where the Wente ’36 Chardonnay won all of the top prizes. That caused Chardonnay to become a very important wine, because there wasn’t much Chardonnay around. Remember, as late as 1966, if you look at the reports of the Agricultural Commissioner for the county of Napa, there were less than 150 acres of Chardonnay in Napa Valley.’”
"…Jullianne Ballou: ‘Wasn’t California at the time still looking toward France and toward Burgundy in particular?’
"Darrell Corti: ‘But not for white wines. Do you know why? Because they hadn’t thought through production. Who was the first to think about the whole production system?’
"Jullianne Ballou: ‘Was it Wetmore?’
"Darrell Corti: ‘No. Ambassador James D. Zellerbach, of Hanzell. He was the first one to import French wood. Otherwise what was the wood that was used? You know, in spite of the fact that people like Robert Mondavi Winery said, “Oh, yes, we used to use this and we used that…” — it’s all nonsense. They didn’t. No one would spend money for cooperage. If they spent money for cooperage, it was for re-coopered cooperage. This you can still see at Inglenook, where you can see barrels that are shipping casks, that are very thick staves — probably chestnut, not oak. They’re shipping casks, and they’re still branded Duff Gordon Sherry. There were very few coopers in California. In fact, it would be very interesting to study who the coopers were. You know, if you make wine, you need a container. There were few container makers. Usually, if we bought barrels, the barrels came from Kentucky. They were all cheap wood. What were they? Reused whiskey barrels. To me it seems very foolish and very stupid to make wine in Bourbon barrels. That’s what we did in California forever! In fact, I can even tell you how the barrels were treated. When you bought a barrel, typically the cost was $5.’
"Jullianne Ballou: ‘Zellerbach had the money.’
"Darrell Corti: ‘Zellerbach had the money, but he also thought things through. When he made the winery, he made a winery that was a small building that was built like Clos de Vougeot. Then what did he do? At that time, the only technology, it’s sort of safe to say about the wine business, was in Bordeaux.’
"…Leyla Cabugos: ‘Observing that we don’t have terrible vintages anymore: Is that moderated in the vinification process because of this technology?’
"Darrell Corti: ‘It is moderated both by climate change and by technology. It’s much easier to make a nice, clean wine in a stainless steel tank than it is to make a nice, clean wine in a wooden one. Before 1964 there was no stainless steel in Bordeaux. And Latour caught a lot of flack from 1964 until, say, 1973, ’74, because they had stainless steel. But their wines always came out very nicely. Nobody else did that. When Mouton put in stainless steel, they put the stainless steel inside the oak fermentors. There’s always the stigma of doing something different, something new, something that people could criticize.’
"…Leyla Cabugos: ‘So aside from its neutral character, is there something about Chardonnay that makes it very amenable to the winemaking that we enjoy now?’
"Darrell Corti: 'Yeah, it’s very plastic. If you make malolactic fermentation, which they have to do in Burgundy, because of the very high acidity of the grapes, and you put the wine in French wood — and remember, in those days, what Zellerbach bought, his French wood, was not Burgundian wood, but was Cognac wood — because the oak from Limousin always went to the production of Cognac. Burgundy wood was from the forest of Citeaux (C-I-T-E-A-U-X) which, quite curiously, is also where the Abbey of Citeaux is, which created the Cistercian religious order. Many of the most famous vineyards in that part of France were all owned by either male or female houses that belong to the Cistercians.
"'Martin Ray always bought his wood from his idol, Louis Latour, because they had their own cooperage. They never bought barrels from Burgundian coopers. They bought wood and made their own barrels. Martin Ray bought those barrels because the grandfather of the current head of Maison Louis Latour was friends with him.
“‘But Zellerbach was the first to actually use French technology — no matter how good or how bad — to flavor a wine. The wine smelled like white Burgundy. Chardonnay left to its own devices has the smell of green apples. It’s very neutral. That’s why Sémillon was much more important. And more wineries made Sémillon than wineries made Chardonnays because Sémillon had character.’”
"…Leyla Cabugos: ‘Where do you think Maynard Amerine got the idea that it was important to push varietal recognition?’
"Darrell Corti: ‘In California that’s the only thing we can do. If we don’t sell a varietal wine, we’re not going to sell any wine. Frank Schoonmaker realized that in the ’40s.’
"…Darrell Corti: 'That’s the other problem in California. We’re too young in growing grapes. We don’t know the best grapes for the best sites yet. We know that we can get a lot of money from Cabernet in Napa Valley. So that will drive out everything else. But, you know, one time in Napa Valley, they planted Pinot Noir on the valley floor. One of the best Pinot Noirs that was ever made in Napa Valley was the Beaulieu 1946, which came from a very old vineyard in St. Helena. That was the last vintage of that vineyard because it was pulled up soon after. You could probably still grow a lot more varieties in Napa Valley. But it’s getting to be a monoculture. What’s the most famous variety? It’s Cabernet.
"Leyla Cabugos: ‘I’ve read that even when it is known what a more optimal grape would be for a place, the temptation from the economic standpoint…’.
"Darrell Corti: ‘Precisely. Precisely. Precisely.’
"Leyla Cabugos: ‘I’ve seen Chardonnay characterized as a grape that requires optimization in terms of the viticulture.’
“Darrell Corti: ‘All grape varieties require that. And one would do better to be a good viticulturist than to be lucky. Then there is the problem in Chardonnay, which is one of the reasons why Olmo worked on Chardonnay, which is that the old Wente clone of Chardonnay is subject to millerandage, which is hens and chicks. If he wanted to work on Chardonnay that makes nice, uniform bunches where all the berries ripen at the same time, he should have worked on Zinfandel’…”.
Read the interview in its entirety on the UC Library News website. Link
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