As the warm weather continues in earnest, noted below are several more wines that are quite suitable for summertime quaffing or as accompaniments to a variety of items hot off the grill.
Oregon: WillaKenzie Estate Grown Pinot Blanc (Yamhill-Carlton District) 2014 – In 1991, after a successful career in high tech, Bernard Lacroute and his wife, Ronnie, purchased a 430-acre cattle ranch just outside Yamhill, Oregon. The couple named the property WillaKenzie Estate after the ancient Willakenzie sedimentary soil on which the vineyards are planted (Willakenzie soils are, in turn, named after two of Oregon’s major rivers: the Willamette and the McKenzie).
With 130 acres now given over to vines, WillaKenzie is the largest family vineyard holding in northwestern Oregon. Two-thirds of the vineyards are Pinot Noir; the remaining vineyards are planted to Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, Gamay Noir, and Chardonnay. Under the direction of winemaker Thibaud Mandet, who was educated at the University of Bordeaux, Oregon’s WillaKenzie Estate combines the best French methods with American innovation to craft wines that are complex, refined, and unique; wines that express the terroirs of both WillaKenzie and the Willamette Valley.
Two years ago – June 2014 – I reviewed the 2011 WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Gris, noting its synthesis of French & Italian styles, producing a lovely medium-bodied wine that combined a creamy texture & earthy minerality with refreshing acidity. The 2014 Estate Grown Pinot Blanc is quite similar in character to the above-mentioned Pinot Gris. This is a light, elegant vintage that offers up hints of peach and pear fruit embraced by a hefty but well-integrated 13.8% alcohol. Retailing around the $21.00 mark, this is a wine of excellent character at a more than reasonable price.
South Africa: Hamilton Russell Walker Bay Chardonnay 2015 – Hamilton Russell Vineyards is located in the cool maritime Walker Bay wine appellation in the beautiful Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. The winery specializes in producing terror driven Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – “Wines from South African soil with a Burgundian soul” – that are widely regarded as the best in South Africa and among the best in the New World.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay is quite different from most New World Chardonnays. The stony, clay-rich soil, cool maritime climate, and naturally low yields produce wines with a tighter, drier, more complex mineral character and length to complement the fruit. And many wine enthusiasts – this writer included – prefer this more “classic” style to the round, viscous, vanilla and overripe fruit character of so many Chardonnays.
Hamilton Russell Chard possesses the elegance, acidity, and balance that is reminiscent of a great white Burgundy… but it also exhibits the concentrated ripe juicy fruit characteristic of a New World wine. As wine critic Stephen Tanzer notes: HR Chardonnays “convey a powerful impression of intensity without weight.”
I’ve previously sampled the 2013 & 2014 HR Chardonnay – both highly rated by the wine gurus – but there is no question in my mind that the 2015 Hamilton Russell Chardonnay – tops them both. This is simply a fabulous wine, ripe & rippling, beautifully balanced, and alive with an incredible depth of flavor and refreshing minerality…
… And given the incomparable quality of this vintage, a comparative bargain. The 2015 normally retails at the $30.00 mark; but do a little surfing and you’re sure to come up with several options for purchase in the low to mid-20s. A whopping 94 points from the Wine Spectator, this wine will be at its best from 2017 – 2022… But only 2,700 cases imported, so you’d better get a move on.
Cheers & Bon Appétit!
TAD
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