Are you talking about the Ridge Chard specifically or extrapolating based on some SCM Chards?
In general, some SCM Chard was ripe when the fires started, so people were rushing to pick ahead of the smoke reaching their vineyards. Other Chard wasn’t ready. Some of that was fine, where smoke didn’t reach. A lot wasn’t picked because it was assumed tainted. Then, people in the maybe areas made their choices.
Unfortunately, at Ridge, we did not pick before the fires. The huge CZU fire burning to the west of Monte Bello, started raging on Monday, August 17th. By late in the day a massive smoke plume and flames were towering over Skyline. The next day, driving up to the winery, it was thick as fog in heavy smoke. We hadn’t picked any chardonnay as it wasn’t yet ready to come of the vines. Up to that point, we only brought in some fruit from contra costa. Anyway, I’ve tasted the 2020 chardonnay estate (not blind) and it didn’t really show much smoke, it felt oaky and maybe that’s what’s confusing on the palate. I should taste it again sometime. Oak by now should be fully integrated and if there was smoke taint, it should be more obvious now.
When I was working in the tasting room at MB, I definitely recall the staff not being thrilled with '20 Estate Chard especially coming on the heels of '19. Everyone loved that wine. I haven’t tasted '20 since shortly after it was released.
I definitely recall looking out the windows facing south in the barn and not being able to see the next ridge (no pun intended). It was brutal.
Unless you have prolonged skin contact or press really hard, it’s pretty easy to avoid making a smoke-tainted white wine. The smoke is primarily inside the skins and isn’t released until the yeast enzymes start going to work.
Most of the whites that I’ve seen people call as smoke-tainted in tastings are barrel-fermented and showing reductive character, not smoke-tainted.
I have no dog in this fight, but it seems to me that posts like those from Eric and Ben, are what really irritate a lot of people like Dirk. I am not sure if these comments are directly replying to his, but he clearly explains that he is a winemaker and knowledgeable taster. He notes that he experienced a lot of smoke on the wines. The responses, whether directly or otherwise, are (1) yeah we picked in a cloud of smoke but that smoke you taste is probably oak; and (2) you are probably mistaking reduction or oak for smoke. Oak and reduction don’t taste like ashtrays and smoke. Yes, a combination of inexperience and suggestion bias could result in a false positive for smoke, but, and hear me out, the wine might also taste like smoke.
Anyway, like I said, I don’t own these wines and considered but declined offers on well priced SCM wines from '20 because I don’t want to risk wasting even a little money, time, and space on flawed wines. Just noting that the responses suggesting that tasters are wrong aren’t particularly likely to go over well.
I don’t think Ben was saying white wine can’t be smoke tainted, though. He was just pointing out the taint comes from the skins. If a winemaker opted for skin contact or pressed too hard, it could be smoke tainted. But conversely, if you knew to take precautions, it was mostly avoidable.
I think it’s pretty accurate that most Northern California whites from 2020 tasted okay. I don’t think I have come across one with smoke taint. I never tried the 2020 Ridge Estate Chard, though.
I’m not addressing that, but rather the suggestion that people are confusing smoke taint for reduction. While some may be doing just that, others have enough experience to tell smoke from reduction. I think Ben’s post was just an off-hand opinion, but as I read this and Eric’s it came off as very “it’s all in your head,” when I suspect that a lot of the people who think they are tasting smoke are actually tasting smoke, in this vintage in which the grapes were literally exposed to smoke for weeks. I don’t have firsthand experience with these wines so can’t say for myself.
Oh yeah, I hear you. I agree, I don’t think we should discount an experienced taster’s opinion. Given how much smoke there was that year, it is entirely plausible that an individual wine could have taint issues, regardless of white or red.
Yup, just sharing my experiences. I haven’t tasted or analyzed Ridge’s 2020 whites from Monte Bello - for all I know they could be super smoky. But I’ve tasted and run smoke and sensory panels on a lot of wines over the last 5 years and there just aren’t a lot of smoke tainted whites. What I have observed is people getting in their heads about tasting wines from 2020 and mistaking reduction for smoke. This has been a particular nuisance in Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay, too. I’m talking people calling smoke on a wine in a 2020 tasting when it was from a completely different region with no fires. I’m not saying that is what Dirk is doing, I’m just suggesting it as a possibility, having personally seen it repeatedly among experienced winemakers and tasters.