French-American Vintages Newest Entry in the Pop-Premium Category

As the so-called pop-premium category of wines evolves into adolescence, a new level of these moderately priced wines is hitting store shelves: the French-American blended wine.

Wines carrying the Clos Ste. Nicole label--a Chardonnay, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot to be sold for $5 a bottle--are now being shipped.

The wines are all blends of French and American wines, the first such varietal wines to be made. (A previous French-American venture, the Christian Brothers’ Montage Chardonnay and Montage red Bordeaux-Cabernet, were not varietally labeled.)

The Clos Ste. Nicole wines, which technically are a second label of the successful Domaine St. George wines, are all well made and offer good quality for the money. The best of the three is the Cabernet Sauvignon, which is 75% French Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% “red wine of California.” The aroma is typically Cabernet-like, with richness not often seen in wines selling for $5.

The Chardonnay is an interesting wine, composed of 75% French Chardonnay and 25% Semillon, a blend not unlike some of the better Australian wines imported to the United States in the last few years.

The Chardonnay is fragrantly apple-like in both aroma and taste; and though there’s little finish in the wine, it is clean as a whistle and compares favorably with similarly priced wine now coming in from France and Italy.

The Merlot (95% from France with 5% California Cabernet) is pleasant but not as good a wine as the Cabernet.

The French Chardonnay and Cabernet both came from the Aude district of France, one of the largest growing regions in that country, in the Midi. The Merlot comes from Languedoc-Rousillon.

Jan Wells, a spokesman for Cannon Wines in San Francisco, which is marketing the Clos Ste. Nicole wines, said that getting label approval from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was a nightmare.

A spokesman at BATF confirmed that it took months to work out the proper wording for the label. The legal statement at the bottom notes that the wine was “blended and bottled by” the winery in Healdsburg.

The French wine was produced at Benoit Fortant Winery in Sete, which Wells said was a state of the art winery near Montpellier. The first shipment of Clos Ste. Nicole, about 22,000 cases, will be made up of about 13,000 cases of Chardonnay and the remainder split between the two red wines.

The demand for varietally designated wines called Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot is growing, and in the last few months more and more such varietal wines are appearing from French firms that once shipped wines called by proprietary designations. That has produced the interesting phenomenon of companies that once shipped attractive wines here called Macon Blanc now shipping in wine called Chardonnay.

The French Cabernet that I have seen coming in at the pop-premium price level ($4 to $6 a bottle) is from the Midi or other non-prestige areas of France; some Bordeaux also are being seen at that price.

Also, more and more Italian Chardonnay is coming in at pop-premium prices. However, much of the Cabernet from Italy is priced at $12 to $20.

The 13th California Wine Patrons banquet, scheduled for Nov. 20 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is also being held this year to announce the formal opening of the California Wine Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Science and Industry.

The wine exhibit, more than a decade in the planning, should be open before the end of the year.

The black-tie dinner is a fund-raising event for the exhibit, which pays honor to Hernando de Vos Courtright, wine collector and hotelier who died in 1986. Tickets to the banquet are $175 per person. For details, contact Carol Tanaka at (213) 744-7493.

Wines and Vines Magazine has selected Bob Thompson to receive its award for Excellence in Wine Writing for 1989. Thompson, 54, is a Napa Valley resident who has written dozens of wine books and is a wine columnist for the San Francisco Examiner.

Wines and Vines also announced that it has chosen Andre Tchelistcheff to receive its Wine Man of the Year Award for 1989.

The presentation will be made to the 88-year-old still-active enologist at a banquet during the Jan. 26-27 Wine Industry Technical Symposium, conducted by the magazine, at the Red Lion Inn in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County.

The Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa opened its doors two weeks ago with a series of luncheons and dinners.

The facility, which will focus on functions for corporate groups, has a major kitchen for gourmet dinners that are matched with Mondavi wines. The kitchen also is to be used for cooking demonstrations. The building has tasting and meeting rooms as well.

The 10,000-square-foot facility will be the site of concerts and art exhibits. The first of a series of rotating collections of art is that of Beniamino Bufano, the late San Francisco artist and sculptor. The work now at the center includes a wide selection of sculptures. Art exhibits will change four times a year.

The Mondavi winery technically is a tenant of the building that was constructed by the C. J. Segerstrom family, owners of the Gateway Center, and customized for Mondavi’s use. A spokesman for the Mondavis said he wasn’t certain of the term of the lease, “but we’re here permanently,” he said.