2007-11-16
CHATEAU ST. JEAN
A Showcase Winery in Sonoma Valley
by Richard Paul Hinkle
It is possible, of course, to make fine wines in an insulated tin building. But where’s the fun in that? “The [founding families] Merzoians and Sheffields went all out when they built this place,” notes St. Jean’s winemaker Margo Van Staaveren, who’s been with the winery since 1980. “They set out to build a showcase winery, and I’m so glad that we have that to work with today.
“Because we have the facility we have, we are able to have a voracious, absolutely loyal Wine Club, for whom we put on lots of one-on-one events…dinners, parties, even vertical tastings of our Cinq Cépages Cabernet Sauvignon blend. People don’t want to just get wine in the mail, they want to experience the winery in person. Wine has become a very personality-driven business, which means that people want to come here, they want to meet me, they want to walk through our gardens, and the want to taste our wines where they are made.”
Van Staaveren says that what we [the wine industry] have learned most over the last three decades is “what goes where. It still takes great vineyards to make great wines. Thirty years ago, you could find Chardonnay planted next to Cabernet Sauvignon, despite the fact that those varieties have entirely different growing seasons [one matures in 120 days, the other requires 180 days]. We have learned, for example, not to grow Chardonnay in Knights Valley, which is a great place for Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We have learned that Carneros and Russian River Valley are ideal places for Pinot Noir and, curiously, a little Merlot in the right spots. But you don’t learn those things without testing out your hypotheses. In a perverse way, phylloxera helped us out tremendously in that regard, by giving us the excuse to pull a lot of grape varieties from places they weren’t right in. But we do know that many of Sonoma County’s viticultural areas are perfect for the Bordeaux varieties, those that go into our Cinq Cépages [the blend that contains the five primary red Bordeaux varieties and shows off a seamless mélange of cassis, currant, coffee and chocolate]. Our Cinq is still the only Sonoma County wine to rank first in the Wine Spectator’s annual Top 100 Wines listings.”
A good place to start is the always exquisite La Petite Etoile Vineyard Fumé Blanc, a big, bold Sauvignon Blanc that explodes in your mouth with zesty, fresh grapefruit and Meyer lemon fruit that lingers and taunts, letting you know that food is necessary to complete this sensual, tactile experience. The 2006 vintage is about to be released (at $20 the bottle). “Yeah, this wine is pretty popular around our house,” allows Van Staaveren, who initially attended UC Davis with thoughts of becoming a special ed teacher. “It’s one of Don’s [her winemaker husband] favorite wines, because it does demand food. We do barrel ferment this wine and age it in small French oak barrels, but we do not put it through malolactic. You don’t need the ‘butter’ of malolactic to infringe on all that fresh fruitiness.” Amen, and thank you very much.
Chardonnay is, of course, a big deal at the Chateau (now part of Fosters Wine Estates). They had seven single-vineyard designated Chardonnays at one time. The best of the Chardonnays, then and now, has always been the much-celebrated Robert Young Vineyard (Alexander Valley). This is a wine that always shows off a creamy texture, with a toasty oak accent, crisp, clear lemon fruit, and nutty, hazelnut notes that solidifies its unique identity. The 2005 Robert Young Chardonnay retails for $25 the bottle, and the good news is that nearly 8,000 cases were produced, so it’s actually out there in the marketplace.
Over the last few years, St. Jean has come back to Pinot Noir with a vengeance, and it really shows with the 2005 Sonoma County Reserve Pinot Noir ($60, tasting room only). This is a succulent, scintillating beauty that shows off the textural wonder that great Pinot Noir brings to the table, this one oily with black cherry fruit, a hint of clove spice, and that exciting, rare filet mignon character that induces one to fire up the barbecue.
The signature wine of Chateau St. Jean today is the Bordeaux-styled Cinq Cépages (“five varieties”). The newly released 2004 vintage – something of a bargain in this class of wines at $75 a bottle – is a fine example of melded parts creating something far greater, far more interesting than the sum of its components standing alone. The wine shows boysenberry and the classic cassis and currant, with subtle hints of coffee, mocha chocolate and black cherry fruit that unfolds about your tongue in a most tantalizing manner. (More than 12,000 cases were made of this superb wine.)
Chateau St. Jean is located at 8555 Sonoma Highway in Kenwood. Phone (707) 833-4134 for further information, or on the web at www.chateaustjean.com. The gorgeous gardens and handsomely appointed tasting rooms are open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for tasting and sales. Terroir tours are offered daily at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and private Riedel wine tastings can be arranged by calling ahead.
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