Premium Californian Chardonnay: Panel tasting results

Stephen Brook, Alex Hunt MW and Tim Jackson MW tasted 54 Californian Chardonnays, with 14 Highly Recommended.

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit latest-release California Chardonnays with availability in the UK and/or US, priced above £40 or $50

Scroll down to see the tasting notes and scores

The verdict

Judges declared themselves perplexed but not surprised by this tasting. Perplexed because it was difficult to come to an overall conclusion – but they had already expected to have this reaction.

California Chardonnay has become extremely diverse in its terroir expression and its winemaking. In the past it was caricatured as buttery and heavy, an opulent crowd-pleaser. Such styles still exist, and were present in the tasting, but they have to sit alongside many other expressions.

Is such diversity positive or confusing for drinkers? Alex Hunt MW had no doubts: ‘Variability and diversity are to be welcomed, if only as a myth-buster. There has never been a single style of Californian Chardonnay. There’s a range of alcohol levels, different uses of oak, varying acidity levels. It’s a good thing that their Chardonnay isn’t a one-trick pony, and that was confirmed by this tasting.’

Quick link: See all 54 wines from this panel tasting

Chardonnay, he added, is ‘a kind of special case, being the one noble variety that’s actually a neutral grape – but the positive side of this is that it’s expressive of place, as well as suited to winemaking interpretation’.

Tim Jackson MW agreed. ‘We could definitely discern a sense of place. To take one example, the wines from Santa Cruz Mountains – though we only tasted a few – were all marked by high acidity. In contrast, there’s still a place for old-school wines, and there were quite a few in the tasting. I too applaud the diversity, although I often had the sense that while the range of wines was representative of California’s different styles, we weren’t necessarily seeing the very best examples.’

Hunt found that his expectations weren’t always met. ‘I expected the wines from warm Napa Valley to be heavyweights, but that wasn’t necessarily the case – perhaps because many came from the Napa side of Carneros,’ he noted.

Jackson had been hoping for more high spots from Santa Rita Hills, but was rather disappointed, though there were good wines.

In pursuit of balance

All of us expected more wines in the style championed by the now-disbanded In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB) movement: fully ripe wines at moderate alcohols and with fine acidity and even raciness. Hunt said: ‘Perhaps some of the boutique wineries that adopt the IPOB philosophy didn’t submit their wines because volumes are low. And although the movement has won much praise, there is room for some scepticism. Such wines can be ascetic and skinny, and that’s not necessarily appropriate for sunny California.’

‘There’s still room for the big oaky styles, as long as they resound with energy and don’t fall flat,’ Hunt continued. ‘The IPOB approach requires high-wire winemaking, which is difficult to achieve.’

Certain wines won no plaudits: the low-acidity, high-alcohol wines that were overpowering and lacked finesse. Jackson observed: ‘We shouldn’t underestimate the strength of the domestic market. Many American drinkers like that style and wineries are happy to produce them. But they’re not necessarily going to win over European palates.’

About 20 years ago Decanter organised a simultaneous blind tasting in London and New York of a dozen Californian Chardonnays. The wine that found the least favour in London – a strapping Carneros Chardonnay with high alcohol – came top in the American ranking. I’m not sure much has changed, despite the best effort of the IPOB crusaders.

The scores

54 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 0

Highly Recommended 14

Recommended 26

Commended 13

Fair 1

Poor 0

Faulty 0

The judges

Stephen Brook

Brook has been a contributing editor to Decanter since 1996 and has won a clutch of awards for his writing on wine. The author of almost 40 books, his works include The Wines of California, which won three awards. Brook also fully revised the last two editions of Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion.

Alex Hunt MW

Hunt joined the wine trade as a van driver for Oddbins while studying at Oxford. In 2000, he joined Mayfair Cellars, before moving to Berkmann Wine Cellars in 2006, where he is currently purchasing director. He became a Master of Wine in 2010, having submitted a dissertation on ripeness trends in California.

Tim Jackson MW

After falling in love with wine in Chablis in 1994, Jackson became a Master of Wine in 2017. He writes about wine for his website, winebook.co.uk, in addition to hosting corporate wine tastings. Jackson is passionate about teaching consumers about wine, and this was the subject of his MW research paper.

About California Chardonnay

From pioneer plantings, through the heyday of big toasty styles to leaner cool-climate bottles, Californian Chardonnay now offers wine lovers real diversity.

Californian Chardonnay has evolved over the decades just as other varieties have done in this US state drenched in sunshine. In 1970 there were just over 1,000ha planted. Clones were derived from plantings made by Chardonnay pioneers such as Wente and Stony Hill.

Until the 1980s most Chardonnays did not go through malolactic fermentation, and the style could be angular, although other wines were given a full-on oaky upbringing. A few wineries, such as Mayacamas and Chateau Montelena, still eschew malo.

While consumers loved the big oaky styles, winemakers were ill at ease. Doug Meador in Monterey once told me: ‘Only a termite could love California Chardonnay.’

It was Kendall-Jackson that created the first wildly successful Chardonnay brand: Vintner’s Reserve. That was a misnomer, since the wine was a multi-region blend (to give consistency from year to year) and it was born after a stuck fermentation delivered a wine with about 9g of residual sugar. It was a hit. By 1989, 400,000 cases were produced, and that figure soon rose above 1,000,000. A slight sweetness remained the hallmark of the brand.

Contrasting styles

Inevitably there was eventually a reaction against the style. Big toasty Chardonnays with fairly high alcohol tended to taste the same, whatever their regional origin. Efforts were certainly made by wineries in the 1980s to plant Chardonnay in cooler areas such as Carneros, but the style remained hefty.

In the 2000s, however, a new generation, personified by the likes of sommelier Rajat Parr and Santa Barbara winemaker Sashi Moorman, strove to create a different style that was more subtle and more food-friendly. Young winemakers such as Gavin Chanin refused to chaptalise, abandoned lees-stirring, and kept alcohol levels well below the 14% popular at the time. This was not exactly a revolution, as winemakers such as Jim Clendenen and Ted Lemon had espoused a leaner style for decades.

The Santa Rita Hills was identified as cool enough to produce this style, as were parts of Anderson Valley in Mendocino and sectors of the Sonoma Coast AVA that were close to the Pacific’s chilly breezes. To unify this trend, an organisation called In Pursuit of Balance was launched. Viticulture was adapted to bring the fruit to full ripeness at lower sugar levels – which was easier to do in the cool coastal sites rapidly being developed.

Today, In Pursuit of Balance no longer exists, but its programme is still accepted by many wineries. Its appeal will be primarily to European-style palates, but some question whether this reined-in style is appropriate for the Californian climate, as it only delivers in the very coolest sites, which are by definition marginal. Many continue to enjoy the bigger styles of Chardonnay, but at least horizons have been expanded and consumers can decide on the kind of Chardonnay they prefer.

Californian Chardonnay has never been more diverse, and that has to be a positive development.

See all 54 wines from this panel tasting

California Chardonnay: the facts

Total plantings in California (2017) 38,820ha

Monterey 6,867ha

Sonoma 6,320ha

Napa 2,798ha

Santa Barbara 2,290ha

Mendocino 1,876ha

Source: California Wine Institute

California: know your vintages

2018 Steady ripening through a mild summer, especially in Sonoma, gave a fine crop of excellent whites.

2017 A complicated year with a cool spell in August, then record-breaking heat in early September, but most whites had been picked by then.

2016 A cool summer without heat spikes proved excellent for white wines.

2015 The summer was hot and dry, but there was helpful rainfall before harvest, which was extremely early. Chardonnay of good quality, picked by late August.

2014 Cooler than average though with heat spikes in early summer. Excellent quality in Napa and Sonoma.

2013 A normal growing season with good yields and high ripeness.

Top California Chardonnay from the panel tasting:

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