What the !@#$%^&*!? has happened to California Chardonnay? (A rant)

[Randy Caparoso]

Okay, Van, but now let's bring up the "fairness" issue. I cannot disagree with you that the vast majority of California Chardonnays are simply not that good, expecially since that also happens to be my genuine opinion. I, too, tend to find them to be somewhat flabby and often overoaked; if not sharp or underoaked, or just plain boring. But isn't wine quality a rather relative definition in virtually all cases? To expect 85% of all California Chardonnays to be world beaters is simply unrealistic! To what wines are you comparing these less successful Chardonnays? To the silken, concentrated and refined '97 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet? To the big, smoky, but tautly wound, perfectly balanced '97 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Napa Valley Chardonnay? (I'm using real examples here). Come on, come on, come on, come on! You simply cannot knock, say, the rather weak, feeble '97 Louis Latour Puligny-Montrachet simply because it doesn't come up to the standards of the huge, luscious, elegant, multi-faceted '97 Vincent Girardin Batard-Montrachet (more real examples). Just as it's wrong to expect a '97 Fetzer "Sundial" to outchard a '97 Stag's! Once you start doing that, you end up making these kind of blanket statements -- like, California Chard is over oaked, or white Burgundy is too thin and acidic. There's simply no logic to that.

I believe my original point holds true because I am merely stating the standards set by the highest levels of the grape -- which is that barrel fermentation in toasty French barrels brings out absolutely the best that the grape is capable of giving. With the exception of places like Chablis (or similar cold regions), this is what Chardonnay is all about, be it in the Cote de Beaune, California, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, or anywhere else where decent stuff has been made. But while the great white Burgundies may be richly oaked, it's still ludicrous to expect great quality and food-worthiness in every white Burgundy you find. You know darned well that most of what you get from even the Beaune's hallowed slopes is downright dull and unbalanced -- and even great tasting food certainly doesn't improve upon on that!

Going to Santa Barbara, if you will, Au Bon Climat uses absolutely the finest, richest, heaviest toasted barrels they can lay their hands on. Are you going to tell me that their Chards are "overoaked," and that they shouldn't be doing that? Like, right. As if I'm going to offer such advisory to ABC's Jim Clendenen, or to Leflaive's Pierre Morey; or for that matter, a Philip Shaw from Rosemount, a George Bursick from Ferrari-Carano, a Francois Jobard, a Mike Grgich or David Ramey. Obviously, these guys are very talented, but when you look at them you realize that although they are working under different circumstances -- cold climate, warm climate, clay soil, chalky soil, high malic acid, low malic acid, etc. -- they all somehow manage to turn out impressive stuff. But just because other vintners around them are not doing as good doesn't mean that there is something inherently wrong with the methodolgy. It just means that some are better than others, as you would expect in all high quality wine regions!

So please -- let's be fair about this when making such pronouncements.