Mer Soleil, Caymus’ chardonnay project in the Santa Lucia Highlands, has been making superb wines for some time now. The Mer Soleil regular “gold” bottling is an oak-aged chardonnay that, while opulent, is also balanced and elegant. The “silver” – new in the BC market – is their unoaked chardonnay and is certainly also made with balance in mind.

The nose on this chard has nuts, caramel, butter, peaches and cream, pineapple, and banana sundae like you would expect from many California chardonnays. The palate continues the ripe and rich fruit with peach, pineapple, and coconut / pina colada. However, even with all the flavour this has great balance and fresh acidity. Texturally leaner and sharper on the palate than the oaked chard, this also makes the “silver” even more food friendly and perhaps more suitable for a hot day. While in California chardonnay abounds, quality balanced chardonnays are a bit harder to find. And, while if I were in the US I could recommend quite a few other very good chards at this price point, this is perhaps the best (or close to) California Chardonnay in BC for $35. As such, I highly recommend it for new world chard fans.

Very Good+
$35 at BCLDB

In response to a recent review I wrote on Au Bon Climat’s 2001 Mt. Carmel Chardonnay, I was invited by John Clerides of Marquis to taste another from them to see if I still found it to be alcoholic and heavily oaked. While we could not find an appropriate comparison from ABC, I was given this bottle to sample from the same region in the Santa Rita Hills. While the ABC was made with grapes from the Mt. Carmel vineyard, nearby is the El Jalbali vineyard, from which Alma Rosa sourced the grapes for this chardonnay.

Where the visionary and maverick winemaker Jim Clendenon runs Au Bon Climat, Alma Rosa is the Sanfords’ (also pioneers of the region) latest project after their split with Sanford Winery. I visited Alma Rosa a few months ago but did not get a chance to taste their whites at the time. Interestingly, the lore I’ve heard about California seems to indicate that the oaky days of Santa Barabara County were largely in the 90′s and early 2000′s, which could explain the stylistic approach of the 2001 ABC. As we shall see, this wine is made very differently.

With quite a rich and tropical nose here I also got nectarine, kiwi and banana – aromas somewhat typical for a California chardonnay, but with a bit more mineral lacing than you might expect. The palate, however, is where all the action is in this wine. There is a definite minerality up front with some tart kiwi and lime notes that leads into a finish of banana and nectarine. The whole palate is structured around a bracing and clean acidity that brings brightness and alacrity to the fruit. Ultimately, this wine is driven toward a layered finish that is both tart and clean, and, while rich, the wine is not creamy nor laden with oaken vanilla flavours. In fact, it still retains a subtle degree of austerity despite its approachability and really is all the better for it. Very well done and another score for the Sanfords. And, as a brief note Alma Rosa claims to be a fully sustainable winery.

Very Good+ to Excellent
$40 at Marquis

Full Disclosure: I received this wine as a sample from Marquis Wine Cellars who exclusively sell Alma Rosa wines in Vancouver

I picked this up about a year or so ago from Marquis on sale. You don’t often run into California chard with this much age on it in BC, and certainly not at the price I paid. Further, Au Bon Climat is one of the best producers in the Santa Barbara region – all in all hard to pass up. That said, I was somewhat disappointed with this otherwise tasty wine.

The wine poured a dark golden yellow, like gold foil. It was also starting to brown at the edges – a sign of age. Nevertheless, the nose was big and full not suggesting tiredness: pineapple, vanilla marshmallow, kiwi, and creme brulée. The palate had awesome fullness and vitality, especially for 8 years on the bottle. I got plenty of creme brulée and banana cream pie. Although the flavours were rich and full, I found this wine a bit hot and thus imbalanced with respect to alcohol. And, even with the new world creamy goodness, this was not showing the kind of complexity I would expect for great chards after 8 years in the bottle.

Very Good+
~$30 on sale at Marquis

This bottle of chardonnay was one of those niggling itches of a wine: one that I had seen sitting around at the wine store back in Vancouver for a long time, always with a touch of curiosity about its contents – not least because a wine critic I greatly respect – Hugh Johnson – seems to think Jordan is up to something good. I think Jordan is essentially a widely available ‘high-end’ winery favoured very much by restaurants. In any case, the bottle is about $65 in Canada and only $35 down here, so I figured this was my opportunity.

I picked this up on the recommendation of Sean over at Vinifico, who informed me that Sbragia was the former winemaker at Beringer who had broken off to set up his own little operation. This was certainly a huge Chardonnay and I actually think Beringer is now more restrained than what is coming out of Sbragia.