At Long Last, Grand Cru Winery Brings Forth Its First Chardonnay

Chardonnay is hot.

Americans are drinking as much Chardonnay as retailers can sell, and it doesn’t make much of a difference if the stuff is from California, France or even Chile. And people are buying it in all styles and at all price levels, from $2.50 a bottle to the sky is the limit.

As consumption figures show, Americans aren’t consuming any more wine than they did four years ago (about 2.4 gallons per person per year), but they are drinking much better wine. And to many Americans, Chardonnay is nothing more than the upscale version of chablis.

In the 1970s, as wine became a fad for the upwardly mobile, pushing the martini into the background, a lot of people would plop themselves onto a bar stool after work and instead of announcing the desire for a “very dry martini,” they would say, “a glass of chablis, please.” It was chic.

A Curious Trend

Today, the word chablis has all but been replaced by the word Chardonnay. And to many of these people, the idea is the same: Gimme a white wine. Well-chilled. But not just any white wine, it has to be Chardonnay.

But whose Chardonnay?

It matters not, apparently, because Chardonnay is being sold by the glass these days in staggering amounts, and rarely do people ask the server who made it.

This “trend” is curious because some chablis is better quality wine than some Chardonnay.

Travel with me now to the little Sonoma Valley town of Glen Ellen, up California 12 through the verdant Sonoma Valley, down the rutted, partially paved road that runs behind the Dunbar Elementary School into a gate that reveals a 100-year-old winery--partially underground.

Grand Cru Vineyards, resurrected in 1970 by wine maker Bob Magnani and operated in the last decade by Walt and Tina Dreyer, makes a Chardonnay. No surprise, you say, considering that roughly 90% of California’s wineries make a Chardonnay these days.

Except that this is Grand Cru’s first Chardonnay, and it comes nearly a decade after most other established brands began making a wine from this variety. I asked Walt Dreyer why it took him so long.

Any Style Will Do

“Five years ago, it wasn’t clear that Chardonnay would become as popular as it has become,” he said. “We decided to do one now to respond to the sales force. There isn’t a distributor who hasn’t pleaded with us to make a Chardonnay.”

What style of Chardonnay did they request? I asked Dreyer. Any style, he was told by the sales force. The fact is that Grand Cru has long made consistently high-quality white wines (notably Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc), and that a Chardonnay, no matter the style, was what his sales people were being asked to supply.

And if they could sell it, who was Walt Dreyer to argue? But he knew that to maintain his winery’s image, he needed top-quality grapes (he’d heard something about silk purses and sow’s ears).

Top-quality Chardonnay grapes were in great demand in 1986, but Dreyer began looking for them anyway. By coincidence, Dreyer was the vintner’s representative to the Sonoma Valley Vintners Assn. and Angelo Sangiacomo was the growers’ representative.

Sangiacomo’s family owns one of the top vineyards in the southern part of the Sonoma Valley, the prestigious region called Carneros. And even though his grapes are in great demand, he was able to contract with Grand Cru for some in 1987 and succeeding years.

That gave wine maker Magnani exceptional fruit, and the result is 1987 Grand Cru Chardonnay ($12), his first release of this variety. The wine is delicate and crisp, with a faint citrus aroma and excellent balance for a lighter-styled wine.

Barrels Arrived Too Late

The juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks (Magnani would have fermented in barrels, but they arrived too late from France) and then aged in new Vosges oak barrels for just a few months to retain the delicate fragrance.

Another Sangiacomo Chardonnay of delicacy, but one made with a little more richness, is from MacRostie, a new operation owned by wine maker Steve MacRostie, formerly with nearby Hacienda Vineyards.

The MacRostie wine ($14.50), sporting a striking label design featuring Steve’s family tartan (he’s of Scottish descent, if you hadn’t guessed), has light, crisp, citrusy notes similar to the Grand Cru, with a hint of pears in the background. This is a delightful first effort.

MacRostie avoided any possibility of bitterness by not crushing the grapes. Instead, he simply pressed the whole berries before fermentation.

For those who first saw the Sangiacomo name on the label of a Joseph Phelps Chardonnay and found that wine to be very rich and lush, these two, more delicate wines from MacRostie and Grand Cru show what can be done with grapes from different parts of the ranch and when the wine maker treats them differently.

His Big Success

Interestingly, Grand Cru remains one of California’s finest producers of Chenin Blanc, an overlooked variety by the wine snob because it doesn’t say Chardonnay on the label. Yet Dreyer admits that it’s the big success story of his winery, and a wine he’ll never abandon.

The delight of Grand Cru’s 1987 Chenin Blanc is that it’s fresher and livelier in overall flavor than many Chardonnays, and at $6 is a fraction of the price. Grand Cru’s version has .9% residual sugar, but the high acidity in the wine keeps it from being sweet on the palate, and thus it matches beautifully with food.

Magnani gets the grapes for this delightful wine from Perry Cook’s vineyard in Clarksburg, a Sacramento suburb. This vineyard has always produced world-class Chenin Blanc. Grand Cru, Hacienda and nearby Kenwood are three of the top producers of off-dry Chenin Blanc in the state, and all of them get grapes from Clarksburg.

Another attractive Grand Cru wine, the 1988 White Zinfandel ($5.85), also may be served with food because it tastes relatively dry, too, even though it has nearly 2% residual sugar. The acid balance is so perfect, however, that mostly what you get is lush strawberry/pomegranate fruit.

New Labels Are Coming

Grand Cru also is changing some other elements about its operation, most notably replacing its old label with a new design and changing the name of a line of wines once called Vin Maison. This was the lower-priced versions of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon that were sold for about a third less than the top-of-the-line wines.

The name of that line of wines now will still be called Grand Cru, but the word California will be emblazoned in three places on the label to distinguish the wines from those carrying the Sonoma County or Carneros designation.

I also liked the 1985 Grand Cru Collector’s Reserve Cabernet, with a lean, mint/herbal note and good balance. However, at $18, it may meet some resistence in the marketplace.

Wine of the Week: 1984 Field Stone Petite Sirah ($11)--For those peppery stews and barbecued hamburgers on a cold night before the hearth, this is the sort of match you need: rich, down-to-earth red wine with a hint of pepper and spice. Made from vines planted in 1894, this wine has the potential to improve in the bottle, but it’s not too tannic to be enjoyed now.