I've always wondered how much I'm influenced by the label or brand of a wine. I wonder if I like a wine because I know what it is or what I expect it to be. That's what made our event the other night so interesting.
For the first Mondays @ Mark's event of the year, I invited some friends over for a blind tasting of four different Chardonnays. For the tasting I selected the newest offering from Pete and Cathy Seghesio, their Journeyman Chardonnay 2011. I also selected the Bacigalupi Vineyards Chardonnay 2011 (made with grapes from the same vines that produced the Chardonnay for the 1973 Chateau Montelena that won the Paris tasting in 1976), the Chamisal Vineyards Califa blend 2010, and rounded out the selection with the Kirkland $6.99 Sonoma County Chardonnay.
I was intrigued to find out if people could really tell the difference between the various wines. Myself, I was a little dubious. For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that I don't necessarily have the best, most distinguishing palate.
Many of the tasters, when told they were tasting just Chardonnays, told me they wouldn't be able to distinguish between the wines. Well, we all were in for a big surprise.
All four wines were distinctive in their taste.
It comes back to the gifts of the winemaker and the imprint of the terroir from which the grapes are grown. Like people, no two are alike.
Take the Chamisal, for instance. They hand harvested and sorted the best blocks of three clones (Dijon, the original Chamisal clone, and 352). They did this at night to best preserve the grapes. Then they pressed the whole clusters and cold settled.
I wasn't sure what cold settling was or why it was important, so I looked it up. It's a process by which the juice and skins are put in a vat to allow the solids to settle at the bottom then the clear juice is skimmed off for fermentation.
For the Journeyman wine, the fruit was sourced from five vineyards each making outstanding single vineyard chardonnays. Each lot came from the part of the vineyard that were poised atop a ridge or elevated bench because they allow optimal drainage and temper vine growth. From there each lot was hand sorted at their winery (in the basement of their home located in the midst of the historic San Lorenzo vineyard) and gently pressed for four hours.While it yields less wine, they avoid the bitterness that can sometimes be present.
From there the wine is placed either in barrels or in a concrete egg (40%). The egg shape contributes to a longer fermentation and the neutral concrete allows for the full expression of both vineyard and fruit. The other 60% is barreled in new French oak barrels and since the fruit was harvested between 3 and 7 am the temperature is ideal for fermentation. During the last portion of fermentation, the barrels are stirred daily as the temperature rises to stop the fermentation.
Two different wineries, two different approaches. Yet both produce stunning wines. When I read about the work that goes into a single bottle of wine, I'm amazed at both the skill and perseverance of the winemakers.
Here's what we discovered: preference has nothing to do with the price of the bottle of wine. Some of the younger folks taking part in the tasting were challenged a little by the spice from the Chamisal Califa blend while those of us who have been around the block a few times really enjoyed the wine.
Ok. I did know which wine was which so my palate wasn't necessarily fooled. However, I had shared a bottle of the Bacigalupi Chardonnay with a friend who instantly picked it out of the tasting. It took a little work to keep that one under wraps while others were still tasting.
They were all good in their own way. While my preference for the evening was the Journeyman with the Bacigalupi a close second, it was fun to listen to the others comments. At the end of the day that's how the tasting ended. (Although it wasn't as close as my voting would have been.)
While the Kirkland Chardonnay wasn't outstanding some of the younger drinkers preferred its milder taste to some of the more complex wines. At $6.99 it's certainly a great value and a very drinkable wine. Frankly I was having too much fun hosting the party and enjoying friends around the bar to take too many pictures.
What I liked best about the whole tasting experience is that everyone was able to express their own opinions. None of them were wrong. Perhaps that's the best part of sharing wine with friends -- it's not so much about the wine as it is about the friends.
I'd certainly recommend making this a fun part of an upcoming party you may be hosting. I'm having fun bringing friends along with me on my wine journey. How about you?
