by Richard Paul Hinkle
One of the great wine photographs is that of founding winemakers, Gino Zepponi and Norman deLeuze, taking to a wine barrel with sledge hammers to dedicate their new vineyard and winery site on the Silverado Trail in 1979. Zepponi is no longer with us, but Norman has gracefully guided his three children into the decision-making positions and the wines of ZD have never lowered themselves to sledge hammer dimensions.
In fact, ZD is exceedingly well-known and well-loved for long ago recognizing the worth and style of Santa Maria and Monterey Chardonnay fruit, transmogrified into wine in such a way that you could always tell that grapes were involved. Remember the old motto, “The grape is our friend.” Many California winemakers forgot that imperative, creating instead Chardonnays brash with splintery oak, bold with harsh alcohol and “Twiggy” thin when it came to fruit exposition. They were emaciated and ragged, unpleasant to drink.
Thus it has always been a pleasure to come taste wines with the deLeuze family, where Chardonnay is a grape that deserves to be honored by wines that show off the grape to its best advantage. And those grapes grown on California’s Central Coast have much to show, usually given the flip descriptor “tropical.” Well, they are that, but they are so much more as well.
As it happens, we are sitting upstairs in the conference/tasting room in the new part of the winery. It would be a perfect setting, but for the fact that a huge fire the night before at a Mare Island warehouse may well have destroyed most all of ZD’s 3400-case collection of “library wines,” those rare bottles that constitute the liquid history of the family’s efforts since they began making wine in Sonoma in 1969. (There was a slender hope was that those wines stored on higher palettes did not crash down on the ZD collection. It was a wan and very slender hope.)
The 2004 ZD Chardonnay is an absolute charmer, flush with sweet butter and that aromatic toastiness that comes from the judicious use of American oak barrels. Along with an extended, very cold fermentation in barrel. There is also Golden Delicious apple, hints of grapefruit, and a wonderfully creamy texture that extends in mouth and memory.
“Most people ferment Chardonnay in barrel at warmer temperatures, for a week or ten days,” says winemaker Chris Pisani (“pizz-ah-nee”), who was born in Brooklyn, but raised a Yankee fan in Queens. “I think Norman was a pioneer in recognizing that the fruit from the cooler Central Coast climates would benefit by a longer, cooler fermentation, that the wines would show off their fruit far more effectually under those conditions. So our barrel fermentations take place in our cold room – emphasize the ‘cold’ in that phrase – that is kept at forty-seven degrees Fahrenheit! That means that we have a fermentation that lasts eight to ten weeks!”
Chardonnay accounts for fully half of the winery’s 30,000 cases each year. The wines are so judiciously balanced – and so juicy – that it almost justifies relegating their Pinot Noirs to just a third that amount (5000 cases per year). Still, they are lovely wines on their own account. Try the 2004 Carneros ($32), and witness Pisani’s artful blend of black cherry and red cherry, with a sage spiciness that invites the barbecued ribs. Not to mention the 2003 Carneros Reserve Pinot Noir ($58), smoky with oak toast and vanillin, but with plenty of black cherry and iodine fruit that it can handle the ribs with one hand tied behind its back. The better, I think, for the Beef Wellington, the prime rib, the filet mignon.
Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for the other 10,000 cases each year, and if the 2002 Napa Valley Cab ($42) is any indication, that franchise is in good hands as well, oily with brilliant black currant, fresh cassis, and just enough green olive to keep all the black fruit from spilling out all over the place. (There’s also a stunning Cabernet “solera” blend – velvet, with blackberry and oak graham – that retails for a mere $350 per bottle. The currant Abacus-7 melds wines from the 1992 through the 2003 vintage, and it’s a rare beauty.)
ZD Wines, 8383 Silverado Trail, Napa CA 94558. Open 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, $5 fee for regular tasting. ZD remains a strong family affair. Artist Julie deLeuze is administrative director, Robert is CEO/winemaker, and Brett is president/ marketing-sales. Their parents, winery founders Norman and Rosa Lee deLeuze are still on hand to provide guidance, experience, and parental wisdom. Never discount parental wisdom.

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