WTN: 2007 Edmunds St. John Heart of Gold

2007 Edmunds St. John Heart of Gold El Dorado County 13.3%
Does this have a heart of gold because:
a) It is a beautiful shade of light gold?
b) It comes from El Dorado County?
c) It is, like the eponymous song, in E minor, and Neil Young's subconscious really meant "I've been a minor for a heart of gold"?

If red wines can be likened to major chords and white wines to minor - the absence of tannin flattening the third and making the entire structure wistful - the answer is "c." As temperatures rise in the southern hemisphere, our hearts and minds turn to cool white wine for solace, and the key of solace is minor. This chord, strummed by guitarist Steve Edmunds, has oh so lovely! aromas of lime, orange blossoms and minerals, with a kerosene/petrol underpinning that I've never tasted elsewhere but riesling. Good acidity, ideal (light) bitterness, good mouth weight. Minor, but satisfying in a major way. Next time I pull up to the gas station, I now have a choice: fill 'er up with riesling! or fill 'er up with 54% grenache blanc and 46% vermentino!

[David M. Bueker]

It is a lovely wine. There seem to be more and more wines from Grenache Blanc (or blends of same) entering the market. Some (ESJ HoG, Tercero) are better than others (a relatively boring Bonny Doon wine I tasted blind last night).

I would love to know what has sparked activity with this grape.

Oswaldo; what a fun tasting note to read! Glad you enjoyed the wine, too!
David; Grenache Blanc, according to Robert Haas, seems to make better wine here than in Europe. Not sure I'm ready to make such a sweeping claim, but there are some pretty nice plantings making some wines of real charm. Thus far, the planting I'm working with seems to ripen nicely at very modest alcohol levels, with nice structure. And the Vermentino must also be taken into account; it's the Bomb! (Not the Fruit kind)

Glad you spoke for the Vermentino, Steve! As much excitement as there is for Grenache Blanc (and, David, you should try some of the old vines GB from Spain, like the Vini Scala Dei), I'm really excited about what the Vermentino adds to the mix, and by extension, the possibilities for Vermentino on the West Coast. Not just California (hint, hint).

I think Vermentino/Rolle has some possibilities, and Steve is showing the way for others to follow.

Of course, if the followers end up planting all the Vermentino on the alluvial plains and deltas, feh. But maybe there will be enough in the right places for it to be meaningful.

I know I'm supposed to be jaded and cynical...and usually I am...about the state of the wine business, but Heart of Gold is easily one of the most exciting white blends I've come across in the last several years. If you haven't had it: you should.

[David M. Bueker]

So Hoke, you're telling me that they had better not plant it in Hollywood or Redwood, and advocating that I cross an ocean for a heart of gold.

So Hoke, you're telling me that they had better not plant it in Hollywood or Redwood, and advocating that I cross an ocean for a heart of gold.

Hey, originally I was going to call it "Like A Rolle In Stone."

[David M. Bueker]

So Hoke, you're telling me that they had better not plant it in Hollywood or Redwood, and advocating that I cross an ocean for a heart of gold.

Hey, originally I was going to call it "Like A Rolle In Stone."

Produced and bottled by Napoleon in rags

So Hoke, you're telling me that they had better not plant it in Hollywood or Redwood, and advocating that I cross an ocean for a heart of gold.

Hey, originally I was going to call it "Like A Rolle In Stone."

Produced and bottled by Napoleon in rags

Or the Mystery Tramp.

Taking advantage of the Steve, David and Hoke sightings, I was wondering about the interesting petrol/kerosene note, has anyone else found that in this wine? Or, for that matter, in other white varietals besides riesling? Could it be a grenache blanc note?

[David M. Bueker]

Didn't pick up on it. I think I still have 1 bottle, so perhaps I will check soon.

This is what I said about it when Steve and I had it earlier this summer, Oswaldo.

Since I had previously raved about the ESJ Heart of Gold from our Cyrus dinner, Steve brought the 2008 release---this one with a tad more Vermentino in the Vermentino/Grenache Blanc blend. It was a bit fatter, a bit richer, perhaps not quite as eagerly aromatic as the previous vintage, but nonetheless enticing, with restrained fruit and alcohol (and if you don’t have your winespeak decoder ring, that means Steve picked the grapes when they were in balance and not raisiny-overripe, then he allowed the wine to reach its own expression without forcing it into being some steroidal monster), and no mask of oak to hide the freshness and zestiness. I love this wine. It’s almost like a two-stage rocket, with instant appeal as it enters with its pure expression of fruit, then an almost explosive expansiveness, a fullness in the back palate, with a refreshing tinge of puckery bitterness right at the finish.

And because there’s nothing masking the essential nature of the wine, it will be fascinating to observe the development curve; you can already see some pungent elements, like muskmelon, beginning to emerge, and I expect those will both intensify and develop some intriguing complexities with time.

I did say there were some "pungent elements, like muskmelon, beginning to emerge" then...but melon doesn't signify petrol to me. Guess we'll all have to drink several more bottles in the name of research!

[David M. Bueker]

Just checked...mine are gone. I had forgotten that I gifted one to my dad to taste with a Virginia friend.

I must say that I was so impressed with the glowing descriptions and the Neil Young allusions that when I saw some of the 2007 Heart of Gold for sale today, I bought one. When I got home and took it to the cellar to rest, I saw a bunch of flowery stuff floating around in the bottle. I'm used to sediment in unfiltered reds, and that's what I think it is, but I've never seen sediment in white wines. Thought I'd better check.

Thanks,
Marc

[David M. Bueker]

Probably tartrates Marc - harmless.

Hmm, a fine white sediment in a wine made by a Berkeley hippie... yeah, probably "tartrates".

I believe tartrates is the only thing it could be. We didn't cold stabilize, but did filter to eliminate any possibility of ML in bottle.

There have been a whole slew (Kansas colloquialism for "a $hitload") of GrenacheBlancs appearing in Calif.
There's one French version that some folks seem to have a fondness for...Chateau RyeAss os some such name!!!
Most of the Calif versions I've liked quite a lot. The TablasCreek is quite nice. And the Jaffurs '08 is one of the best.
The Tercero from Camp4 Vnyd is also very/very good.
GrenacheBlanc can produce a fat/flabby wine if you let it. The above ones have more acid & balance, as does Steve's HoG.
They seem to have a floral perfume much like Roussanne and Viognier. I'd like to see what it does in a cold-climatte
like StaRitaHills or (extreme) SonomaCoast. Would love to see what the Peay boys could do with it. Or EhrenJordan.
Tom

Hi Oswaldo,
The German Wine institute did a study on the petro character of Riesling and discovered that factors such as (1) high acidity (2) high sun exposure (3) ripe fruit with “late harvest” and (4) water stress, might contribute to the petro character.

Salute

Hi Oswaldo,
The German Wine institute did a study on the petro character of Riesling and discovered that factors such as (1) high acidity (2) high sun exposure (3) ripe fruit with “late harvest” and (4) water stress, might contribute to the petro character.

Salute

Well, three out of four ain't bad...

Hmm, a fine white sediment in a wine made by a Berkeley hippie... yeah, probably "tartrates".

OK, I'm in for a case.