Only Taste Counts : Too Much Sugar in Kendall-Jackson Chardonnays? Test Shows Up Critics

THE ONCE volcanic, now tranquil region of Lake County is emerging once more as one of the state’s finest wine-growing areas. That’s largely because of San Francisco lawyer Jess Jackson, who almost innocently set in motion the wine making that today brings the region its status.

“I was an almost-burned-out trial lawyer after 30 years,” Jackson told me as we walked along rows of vines toward the functional concrete winery at his well-established Kendall-Jackson Vineyards. “This community of Lakeport seemed kind of an ideal retreat. I planted my first vines here in 1974. As they came into bearing, I sold the grapes, until one day I just figured, why not make some wine myself? It was not an unqualified success. The family calls it my ‘gnat wine.’ It was time to call in the professionals. We dubbed the next vintage ‘Chateau Du Lac.’ Common sense decreed that wasn’t right either, so we hyphenated my wife’s maiden name to mine and it sounded right--Kendall-Jackson!”

When Jed Steele came aboard as wine maker in the early ‘80s, serious wine production began. The no-nonsense winery was completed in 1982. Soon, Kendall-Jackson wines were winning awards all over the country. By 1986, production was up to 90,000 cases. In 1987, sales rose 75%, to more than 160,000 cases. “We’ll be approaching 300,000 cases this year,” Jackson said as we paused by the ’88 Chardonnays fermenting in French oak barrels. A far cry from that first “gnat wine.” We went to the tasting room for a vertical tasting of the Kendall-Jackson Proprietor’s Reserve Chardonnays from 1983 to 1987, with the ’83 being the first release of this extraordinarily fine Chardonnay. In Craig Goldwyn’s “American Wine Competition,” the 1983 and 1985 had emerged as the best chardonnays in America. Then came the flap over alleged residual sugar in the Kendall-Jackson (and other) Chardonnays. The babble and squabble erupted in countless oral and written commentaries, always with arithmetic about total acidity, pH factors, and thresholds of perception of sweetness. All the while, thousands of people were buying these wonderful wines despite comments from some scribes that such wines “would become flabby with age.”

It ain’t so! Now, here is the contrary evidence. In this vertical tasting, the 1983, which is no longer available, was the most glorious of all. Piney resins from the living components of the wine had enriched the character. I gave it the top rating, 20 /20, with no qualms, and gave the 1987 19 /20 for its balance, full bouquet and fresh, clean taste ($20). It would, with no doubt, emerge, like the 1983, as a most noble wine. All had the almost-below-threshold residual sugar content of 0.5%. The style of these Proprietor’s Reserve wines was constant, each with about 50% of the grapes coming from Jackson’s recently purchased Tepusquet acreage. I congratulated Steele.

People don’t drink arithmetic; they seek the wines that taste good!

Also, don’t overlook the Kendall-Jackson Cabernets, Merlots and Zinfandels, and be on the lookout for the soon-to-be-released Cambria 1986 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay ($25), of 100% Tepusquet grapes, an absolutely superb wine. The keeping quality will depend only on how long you can keep away from it.