Improvements Uncorked : Bouchaine Winery Pinot Noirs Unlock the Treasures of the Grape

SOME WINERIES--Wente Brothers and Louis M. Martini come to mind--stay in one family for generations. Others have undergone major upheavals in ownership and management.

Change swept through Bouchaine Vineyards in Napa Carneros in 1986, when one of the founding partners left the firm, a fresh corporation was formed and a new president, Eugenia Keegan, was appointed. John Montero, then wine maker of Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County, accepted the challenge of perpetuating Bouchaine’s prestige Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.

And the new broom didn’t stop there. Even the Bouchaine slope-shouldered bottle, held in disdain by many retailers because it was not easy to store, was abandoned in favor of standard bottles.

So it was time to be curious. Had the wines held their own since 1986? Had they risen to a new level of excellence? In mid-August, I was to find out--at a luncheon-and-tasting visit to the winery.

We began our tasting with Montero’s 1987 Bouchaine Carneros Chardonnay ($14), a lovely golden wine. It is buttery-smooth on the palate and in perfect balance.

Next came the Bouchaine 1986 Estate Reserve Carneros Napa Valley Chardonnay ($19), a wine with an unbelievably complex bouquet that is at once exotic and subtle. Elusive hints of ripe peaches and pineapple and soft echoes of oak incense tantalize the senses. Obviously, Montero made this wine from fully mature fruit.

I asked Keegan about the grapes’ sugar content at harvest. “Twenty-three point five Brix,” she responded instantly, referring to a scale that determines sugar content. Perfect. She smiled knowingly. She and I both know that if sugar content goes any higher, total acidity drops, dulling the wine.

This wine is not to be missed. It will age beautifully, and it is delightful to drink now.

Of the Bouchaine 1986 Reserve Carneros Napa Valley Pinot Noir ($17), only 500 cases were made. Held to the light, this wine displays the ruby translucence that is the hallmark of fine Pinot Noir.

This Pinot Noir has lingering scents of ripe melon, tastes of black bing cherries and an aroma with slightly smoky edges, all of which point to similarities with French Burgundian treasures of this grape.

Then we came to the unreleased 1988 Pinot Noirs. One is known as the “Beauty.” The pomace of the thick cap of skins and seeds from the grapes, almost hard enough to walk on, was manually punched down to obtain color and tannin extraction during fermentation.

Another wine is called the “Beast” because the cap, or chapeau as the French call it, was stirred into the fermenting wine manually. Because Pinot Noir must be handled gently, this practice is a delicate way to break up the cap. In my notes, I wrote: “Both of these wines have elegant dimensions in all their sensory aspects--color, scent and taste. They set new dimensions for California Pinot Noir.”

A third ’88 is called the “Mystic” and is made from grapes grown on a new vineyard on Sonoma Mountain. These grapes have even more intense taste qualities. The Bouchaine 1988 Carneros Pinot Noir is likely to come from a blending of all three of these wines.