Go West!

American wine is wonderfully diverse and unpredictable - unsurprisingly, given it's made in each of the fifty states - but for most there's only one place that comes to mind when thinking of American wine: California. The state produces 90% of the country's wine, but this dominance can do both the state and the country a disservice. Stereotypes of Californian wine as big, bold, and fruity persist, overlooking the range of styles across the state, and the high quality wines coming from Washington and Oregon, and to a lesser degree New York and Virginia, get overlooked. This is why it was so exciting to see the very different states of California, Oregon, and Washington get together to offer a joint trade tasting in London - so exciting, in fact, that I travelled down to the unreal city itself to partake. Here is a selection of the wines I tasted.

California

two of the great Santa Barbara wineries: Au Bon Climat and Qupé

 

Au Bon Climat

The AVAs to the south of San Francisco in Santa Barbara County are quite different from the classical Californian regions to the north of the city. Although the first grapes were planted more than two hundred years ago, it's only in the last thirty years or so that serious wine has been made there. The area is cooled significantly by ocean winds and fogs - the nearer to the ocean, the cooler the region. This makes it ideal territory for the Burgundy grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Au Bon Climat's French name (it means "well-exposed vineyard") provides a clue about the style of wine: although these wines are true to California, they are hugely influenced by France and do the most to challenge preconceptions of Californian wine. The wines oscillate between Burgundian and Californian, so it was great to taste the wines back to back and directly compare the different expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (though I was disappointed the incomparable Hildegaard - a unique blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Aligoté - was missing). The Wild Boy Chardonnay remains, despite its ludicrous label, my favourite high-quality affordable Chardonnay, but the two wines which stood out in this tasting were the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the Sanford & Benedict vineyard in Santa Rita AVA, the coolest of the area's regions. I'd love to taste these two wines blind alongside some Burgundy.

 

Seghesio

The day brought home to me just how good Zinfandel can be when made well with proper attention and the Zinfandels from Seghesio, based in Sonoma County with vineyards in Anderson and Russian River Valleys, may just have been the best of the show. The 2011 Sonoma Old Vine Zinfandel had an exceptional balance of oak and fruit, but I thought the 2011 Rockpile Zinfandel surpassed it for complexity. Rockpile is a new sub-AVA in northern Sonoma; to qualify for the AVA, vineyards must be higher than 800ft, free from the fog that doesn't rise above that level. It was interesting to learn of an AVA independent of, rather than dependent on, the state's famous fog. Unusually, Seghesio also produce wine from two Italian grapes: Arneis, a Piemonte white grape, and Sangiovese, the great Tuscan black grape. I've tasted the Arneis before and it's an excellent wine, though it takes a while to open up. The 2010 Anderson Valley Sangiovese is made from vines that are descended from plantings from the turn of the last century: Prohibition pretty much killed off plantings of the grape, so these vines are unique. The wine's expensive and I'm not sure it compares with Tuscan wines of the same price; at the same time, it was hard to fault. 

Oregon

Adelsheim are one of the oldest wineries in the state and their wines are finally tiptoeing their wine into the UK. The 2012 Willamette Valley Chardonnay is subtle and balanced, especially compared to some of the mammoth Californian Chardonnays I tasted. It's Pinot Noir that they specialise in, though; here I found myself preferring the less expensive wine - the grainy earthiness of the 2011 Willamette Valley over the lighter but more textured 2011 Elizabeth's Reserve.

Adelsheim

Perhaps the best white of the day was the Trisaetum 2012 Ribbon Ridge Riesling. Riesling's a grape which should do very well in Oregon but has never taken off: Pinot Noir dominates and perceptions in the States of Riesling are shaped by sweeter, inexpensive wines from Washington. This Riesling demonstrates exactly what the grape is capable of in Oregon in the right hands. 

Washington

Washington suffers from making wines of all levels of quality from far too many grapes. I also think that high-quality wineries have spent too long targeting the rest of the US market; an obvious target, but one which involves navigating the complex and prohibitive three-tier distribution system. The UK and Northern Europe markets are much more suitable areas for Washington to demonstrate its quality. 

For this reason, I was delighted to see Betz Family Winery at the trade show. One of many wineries unavailable in the UK, I'd wanted to visit them when I was in Seattle last September but they are closed to the public. Speaking to their new owner, Steve Griessel, in London, it was clear he had realised that Northern Europe presents a more profitable and accessible market than other US states (he was off to Sweden the next day). The wines, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah based, are expensive but worth the price and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the UK. 

Washington red wines at their best can be characterised as being European in style but with fuller fruit flavours, quite different from their Californian equivalents. This is true of the Betz wines and also of one my favourite wineries anywhere, Andrew Will. The 2010 Two Blondes is an exceptional wine, full of fruit flavours but backed up with real structure. 2010 was a cool year and the wine is just 12.8%; drinking well now, it's still got a few years left in it. Two Blondes is a vineyard which winemaker Chris Camarda planted in 2000 and the wines are proving extremely popular. I wonder if they're replacing in importance the wines from the Ciel du Cheval vineyard; still a very good wine, the 2009 didn't have the immediacy of the Two Blondes nor the sophistication of Sorella from the same vintage. Always Cabernet Sauvignon heavy and always serious, the 2009 expression of Sorella is just beginning to open up and has ten to fifteen years left in it at the very least. From the best vineyard for Cabernet in the state (Champoux), if you wonder whether Washington wine can compete with Bordeaux or, for that matter, Napa Valley, then here's your answer.