Blancaneaux 2006
Not all high-quality white wines from Napa, California, are Chardonnay.
Never one to do the same thing everyone else is doing, pioneering filmmaker and winery owner Francis Ford Coppola chose to do something unusual with a patch of land on his Rubicon Estate — grow Rhone white varietals Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier.
The vines are grown against a shady hill on Mt. St. John in western Rutherford, Napa Valley, allowing for a relatively cool, long growing season that slowly but fully ripens the grapes. According to the French, it takes at least 8-10 years for Marsanne, Roussanne, and Viognier vines to begin producing high quality fruit (in fact the AOC requires a minimum of ten-year-old vines). Considering that Coppola’s team began planting these varietals in 1995, we’re just now beginning to experience the best Blancaneaux.
The “old” vines combined with an ideal growing season to produce a lush, delicious, and complex white wine. The exact recipe for you wine geeks is this: 51% Marsanne, 32% Roussanne, and 17% Viognier (no, I’m not sure why winemaker Scott McLeod chose to do 51 percent Marsanne as opposed to 50 or 52 … these things are best left to the professionals!). And unlike most other whites from Napa, this wine was not bathed in oak — in fact, it saw no oak whatsoever, as it was fermented and aged in stainless steel.
Tasting Notes: Blancaneaux 2006
A distinctly floral aroma fills the nose, along with ample white fruits and exotic spices. In the mouth you get bright, tropical fruit flavors of pear, white peach, melon, and citrus (lime?). There are also hints of ginger and allspice and a firm mineral note. Lots of charm and complexity. Texture is soft and velvety, and though the acidity is fairly low, this is by no means flabby and makes for a beautiful match with simply prepared scallops, pork, and sauteed vegetables.
a-9 t-9 b-8 fc-8 v-7 ~ 91 Points
Winery: Rubicon Estate
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Once in a while when I’m in the wine shop my alligator arms reach way way down to the bottom of my pocket, where I hide my twenty dollar bills, so that I can buy an “expensive” bottle of wine. I know, I know, there are plenty of people who plunk down much more than that on a regular basis — indeed, you might be one of those who regularly have Andrew Jackson as your wine enabler.
When I first saw this wine I thought, “wow, a wine from Texas!”. After all, San Antonio IS in Texas, isn’t it?
I picked this up because it was cheap and brought in by Stevenot, an importer who I’ve trusted in the past. Many years ago, Stevenot introduced the USA to McGuigan Brothers wines from Australia. Much has happened since then, with McGuigan going from little-known niche brand to mass-market, Stevenot filing and then recovering from a Chapter 11 filing, and many other details that have no bearing on the review here.
Generally speaking, I’m against the majority of California Chardonnay on the market — but not against ALL California Chards.
Simi is a California winery founded over 125 years ago by two brothers named Giuseppe and Pietro Simi, from Tuscany, Italy. The Simi brothers built a successful business before both died just after the turn of the 20th century, leaving the estate to Giuseppe’s daughter Isabelle, who continued the business with help from her husband Fred Haight. The business continued to flourish until Prohibition (1920), and picked up right where it left off when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. 
As promised in the White Truck winery profile article of a few days ago, a review of White Truck White Wine. 
Generally I’m not a fan of California Chardonnay, mostly because many of the examples I’ve tasted were too over the top with sugary fruit, high alcohol, and overabundant oak. Of course, not every California Chardonnay is like that, but in my experience there have been more “cocktail quaffers” than bottles appropriate for the dinner table. 
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