WTN: Killer Chardonnays (NZ, California, Burgundy)

[Jenise]

We served 60 people at our neighborhood tasting last night, another record. In a neighborhood that has a lot of official clubs (build a club house, and people will form clubs), it is no mean feat that in three years our monthly tastings have become, even surpassing the Yacht Club, this neighborhood's hottest ticket.

The theme was Killer Chardonnay, and I took many of this group's excellent suggestions to heart in making the final selection, though availability, or lack of, took some offerings off my list of final selections. I could not get five matching bottles of Domaine Serene to save my life, for instance, nor could I get the Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch in time. Which worked out very well in fact because it freed me up to buy the 2004 Hanzell, which I discovered K & L had five bottles of while I dithered over the other. I did order a case of the St. Innocent Anden and Freedom Hills to choose between, but something went snafu with the order and I didn't think I had the wine, so I bought something else. Then the St. Innocents showed up after all. So I ended up keeping the SI's for myself and served the "something else" because the latter was such a good ringer for price.

The evening was a spectacular success. The majority of our tasters had never tasted an expensive chardonnay, and the six we had were as distinctive as could be: no two were alike. The wines were served blind (even to me), and tasters were asked to choose their top three wines.

In order of popularity, the wines were:

2004 Mer Soleil, $35, 23 1st place votesThe darkest of the six wines. Superripe nose of cheese, peaches and yellow corn on the cob. Lush texture, long finish.

2005 Wente "Riva Ranch", Arroyo Seco, California, $11, 14 1st place votes This wine's fate was sealed with the aromatics--say what you will about overoaked California chardonnay, but the first pass through all the wines had everyone, including me, holding up this glass and going "Oh my! Have you smelled C yet?" While the other five wines were struggling to find their way out of the glass, flowers, marzipan and asian pear-apple just poured out of this glass. Really lovely. On the palate, melon, apple, brioche and vanilla pudding. Ripe but not at all overripe with tame, but not flabby, acidity. Amazingly elegant for the price. Purchased from Pete's Market in Seattle, who received orders for about 18 cases this morning--which does not include the ten cases my friend Hal already bought nor my three.

2001 Chateau Montelena, "30th Vintage", Napa Valley, $33, 7 first place votes and lots of 2nd place votes
A great vintage for Montelena, yields were down 33% in 01 but the fruit was perfect. Coconut, spicy green apple, white peach, kiwi fruit, and excellent minerality. Really en pointe and with a long future. My 3rd place wine.

2004 Kumeu River "Mate's Vineyard, New Zealand, $39, 9 1st place votes, but little else
The votes suggested this was a love it or hate it wine, and I was in the latter camp: this wine just didn't have that quality that has made prior Kumeu Rivers so distinctive and impressive. Sulfur, lemon-lime, and rocks on the nose, with a strangely non-matching palate of green apple and walnut. None of the tropical apricot and pineapple I expected.

2004 Hanzell, Sonoma, $60, 5 1st place votes
Vitamin-minerals, flowers, stone fruit, apples, flowers--just about everything possible paraded by on the nose of this wine. Massive, deep, voluptuous, sexy as hell. My first place wine.

2005 J. M. Boillot Puligny Montrachet, $45, 3 1st place votes
The lightest in color of all the wines, a pale yellow. Lovely white flower nose and very precise on the palate with crisp golden delicious apple fruit and hazelnuts. Delicate but determined. My 2nd place wine but unfortunately (and predictably) too subtle and sophisticated for most.

Before the sit-down portion of the evening began, though, we had six $10ish whites for people to help themselves to while guests are arriving and setting up their glassware. I deliberately avoided chardonnay among those for greater contrast to the sit-down portion of the evening, and I was really too busy to taste them all, but I did get a sip of both the Kenwood 05 SB and the the 06 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc and want to comment that both were disappointing compared to prior vintages I've had of both. Identically, they were a little flat.

So, it almost looks like you educated the neighbors, except that your top 2 were the bottom 2. Sounds like a great adventure! Voting for the top 3 is a simple way of doing a blind like this, with lots of folks and a limited number of wines. I've only done the 20 pt. AWS system for blinds, but there are usually an equal number of wines and wine drinkers. Were you in charge of the munchoids too?

[Jenise]

Howie, it's quite typical that my favorites are the low scorers and that's easy to understand. I'm into subtlety and complexity, whereas the largely ungeeky crowd tends to go with size, which in the case of chardonnay translates to oak and ripeness. The low-cleavage wines always win the popular vote. And re the munchies, no, everyone brings a dish.

I didn't serve your chardonnay there after all, btw. I was too selfish--I couldn't round up enough unoaked chardonnays to serve as pretasting wines, so I'm saving your wine for a smaller gathering where I can be assured of being able to give it my full attention. Wouldn't have been able to Friday night.

We served 60 people at our neighborhood tasting last night, another record. In a neighborhood that has a lot of official clubs (build a club house, and people will form clubs), it is no mean feat that in three years our monthly tastings have become, even surpassing the Yacht Club, this neighborhood's hottest ticket.

Sounds like fun. So do I understand that you organize this event for the benefit of the community once a month? And others don't reciprocate with wine events, but rather other sorts of events?

Thanks for the notes, Jenise. After my move last summer I came across a 1996 Hanzell Sonoma Chard and opened it in January. It may have been past its prime but was still drinkable. I understand that Hanzell, Swan and Stony Hill have in the past had the reputation for being Chardonnays that age well. I recently joined the mailing list for Chateau Montelena so look forward to trying some of their Chards. The summer shipment was Sauvignon Blanc and I haven't opened those yet but will soon. Too bad about the Kumeu River.

[Jenise]

Sounds like fun. So do I understand that you organize this event for the benefit of the community once a month? And others don't reciprocate with wine events, but rather other sorts of events?

The group was started by my good friend Jim before I moved into the neighborhood. Then, though, it was just a casual group of 9 to 15 people. It's really grown in the three years since I've lived here, and we still co-plan everything, but I'm the one with the shopping gene so I typically buy the wines. We call ourselves The Wine Club but there are no dues or rosters, we just charge $20 per head and require advance reservations. And others--well, reciprocation isn't an issue, there are just other "clubs", most of which I'm unfamiliar with--I'm not a clubby person, I pretty much stick to wine and boats.

we just charge $20 per head and require advance reservations.

Aha, that makes sense. Sounds like a nice time. I'm always trying to recruit larger and larger groups of people to let me spend their money on wine that I/we will then drink..

[Jenise]

I'm always trying to recruit larger and larger groups of people to let me spend their money on wine that I/we will then drink..

Great gig if you can get it, especially if you don't have to make concessions to popular tastes.

Jenise, thanks for posting this. Some nice notes!

I also head up a monthly wine meetup; we currently have just about 12-15 people showing up, as you did in the beginning. I've been debating trying to switch the format to something more similar to yours, where I buy the wine and everyone just throws in some cash (our goal is $20 or under, too). As it stands now, we have about half of the people bringing food and the other half bringing wine, but it inevitably winds up that some people are paying more than others that way. It also means that a lot of the wine ends up being Trader Joe specials, because quite frankly, we've got some cheapskates in the group.

I've been hesitant to try and force the change though, because my wine picks have rarely been the overall favorites, and some of the members have contributed some really nice, interesting wines.

Wow - 60 people - I admire your organization skills!

Sorry, I also meant to ask a couple of questions, too (for Jenise):

When you're figuring out how many bottles you'll need of each wine, do you just figure it based on 2 oz tasting size pours? And how do you work the pouring; do you have several people helping you pour, or does everyone pour their own? What about the notes you've posted...are these solely your observations or do others provide you with their impressions, too? Finally, how many of your members would you say are focused on the tasting aspect and eager to learn something, and how many are just there to drink?

[Jenise]

K, totally understand your frustration with the cheap skates--I've been there. I love the "bring a bottle" approach if you're among like-minded people, especially when some have cellars to draw from where others are buying hot new releases. But when you've got cheap people who routinely underserve the purpose, then it undermines everyone else's good will. You can serve some pretty good stuff for $20 a head, and it's fair to all; we only serve 6 main wines plus a bunch of cheap snack wines (I'd have gone for 8, but this is how it was started). Of course, this means someone has to be the buyer and someone has to be a treasurer, but maybe in the end the extra work's worth it.

....I've been hesitant to try and force the change though, because my wine picks have rarely been the overall favorites, and some of the members have contributed some really nice, interesting wines...

K
You could always ask one of those members to go shopping with you. It would be a committee!