Regional Report: Russian River Chardonnay
The best Chardonnays from this part of Sonoma have few competitors in the state

By Jim Gordon

The Russian River Valley is about as far from slick as a wine region gets. Its atmosphere is rural, many of its people are counter-cultural and its location is way off the beaten track. Third-generation Italian-American farmers, unreformed hippies, affluent ex-urbanites, artist colonies and gay resorts populate this near-coastal section of Sonoma County. Yet the wines from Russian River Valley are well groomed -- comfortable on Rodeo Drive and Fifth Avenue. Many of the very best examples of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made in California come from the 14,000 acres of wine grapes planted here.

This report looks closely at Chardonnay wines grown in the Russian River Valley to recommend wines that represent the best overall quality, greatest dollar value, and most distinctive styles. We blind-tasted 54 wines; 31 from 2003, 21 from 2002 and two recently bottled 2004s. (The tasting was done in mid-2005; some wineries have now moved on to the next vintage.)

The good news is that more than 40 percent of the wines are very high in quality, rating AA or AAA on the CA Wine Triple-A scale. Even better is that most are impeccably balanced, not overblown with alcohol and oak, and show a high degree of local color; i.e., flavor characteristics that come from the vineyard locations in this unique growing area. First of all, they are gushing with ripe fruit flavors like Fuji apple and juicy Anjou pear. Many have enticing floral aromas, and some of my favorites carry a subtle mineral intensity on the palate and the finish.

For Chardonnay ascendancy in California, Russian River competes with nearby Alexander Valley, with Carneros 40 miles to the southeast, with Napa Valley itself to some extent and with certain stretches of Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Arguably, Carneros presents the stiffest competition in terms of the high number of sophisticated Chardonnays made there that command high prices.

Russian River Chardonnay does have a style of its own, however. It comes from the warm days, very cool nights, largely gravelly soil and wide variety of slopes and exposures to the sun. All these affect the way the vines grow and the grapes ripen. I especially loved the more distinctive wines, such as Patz & Hall’s subtle sleeper from the Zio Tony Ranch, Dutton-Goldfield’s floral and spicy Rued Vineyard bottling and Eugenia Keegan’s exotic white-pepper and marzipan scented Buena Tierra Vineyard Chardonnay. Those are all made in small quantities and hard to find, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that Buehler, Martin Ray, ForestVille, DeLoach, Rodney Strong and others made high-quality affordable Chardonnays in quantities of several thousand cases or more.

The bad news comes in two forms. A minority of the Chardonnays came across both thin and rather tart or, on the other hand, overly oaky -- presumably from aging bland wine in too high a proportion of new oak barrels. None of them was unacceptable as a white wine, but not what you’re looking for at $18 and up.

Many of the best wines are relatively full-bodied, with alcohol content averaging 14 percent, and pleasantly viscous from the concentration of the juice at harvest. But they’re not monsters and don’t let anyone tell you they’re not food wines. I like the advice of Joy Sterling, whose family owns Iron Horse Vineyards and who submitted one of the boldest and butteriest wines for the tasting: Iron Horse Corral Vineyard Chardonnay 2002. She says to enjoy it “with corn soup, rainbow trout, sole, halibut with mushrooms and asparagus, salmon, steamed lobster, lemon roast chicken served with jasmine rice, veal chop, anything with a cream sauce, goat cheese, walnuts – in other words, as often as possible.”

The best and most balanced of these Chardonnays will hold their quality or improve for at least 10 years after their harvest date. In recent years I’ve enjoyed 10-year-old versions of Marimar Torres Chardonnay, for example, that were still full of life and fruit and had developed a mellow mineral complexity of a type that you never taste in a new release.

Torres is just one of many women winemakers and owners who help define the taste of Russian River each year. To mention a few, they include Eugenia Keegan of Keegan, Jennifer Lynne Wall of Barefoot Reserve and J. Lynne, Christine DeLoach of the new Hook & Ladder winery, Susie Selby of Selby, Gina Gallo of Gallo Sonoma, Christine Hanna of Hanna and Ellen Mack of Russian Hill.

Whether or not the influence of so many dedicated women contributes a feminine style to Russian River Chardonnay is difficult to determine. But if these Chardonnays rely more on elegance than brawn it’s not surprising. It helps make them so fitting for educated audiences who appreciate the finer things in life – even when they come from one of the least pretentious parts of California.