Top Ten Wines

My friend Rob and I took a moment to reflect on some of the best wines we've had, many together, over the years since we really started getting in to wine in college. We picked our top ten faves and added some notes about what we remember being so amazing about the wines and whether there were any memorable circumstances related to tasting them. So, without further ado, here they are:

Matt's Top Ten (mine are in no particular order - it was too hard...)

1. 1977 Taylor Vintage Port (Purchased from Levi at Liquor Castle, Beverly Hills, now closed. I don't know how many college kids were drinking aged vintage port, but Levi and his charitable wife made us a deal too good to pass up. Youthful and powerful for such an aged wine, but with the balance and complexity I have come to love in Taylor's port.)
2. 1995 Montelena Estate Cabernet (tasted as part of "Rob & Matt's wealthy industrialist" trip to Napa Valley - classic CA cabernet dark fruit with lots of tannin and a potential for a long life)
3. 1989 Cordeillan Bages Pauillac (Rob brought this to a dinner at our house a couple of years ago, classic Bordeaux with archetypal lead pencil and eucalyptus notes accompanying black berry flavors.)
4. 1994 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet (when tasted young upon release at the winery, incredible structure, dark fruits and complexity. When I was a Mondavi stockholder, we could roll in to the To-Kalon reserve tasting room and be set up with a 4+ wine vertical flight of the expensive reserve cabernets. Holy mackerel, those were some good times. Most recently, we opened a bottle of this last year - it was still good to excellent, but I feel that it was in its prime during its youth.)
5. 1982 Montelena Cabernet (or was it 1980, tasted at our neighbor's 4th of July party, in around 2006. Amazing youth and complexity for such an aged CA cabernet.)
6. 1996 St. Jean Cinq Cepages (Purchased by Rob in the right place at the right time as a pallet was being unloaded at LA Wine Co. Have had this on several occasions over the years - this wine aged well with black berry fruit flavors and tar notes.)
7. 2003 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay (A fruity, buttery, oaky, bomb of chardonnay flavors with an excellent overall balance. A prototypical CA chardonnay.)
8. 1995 Opus One (tasted at the winery with a sizable pour. Dark fruits, amazing length and complexity. Another of the benefits of Mondavi stock ownership.)
9. 1996 Beringer Chardonnay Reserve (had at a dinner at Rob's. Amazing fruit, but still refined and balanced. My favorite of the Beringer reserve chardonnays, a perennial favorite)
10. 1992 Taylor Vintage Port (Tasted in half bottle purchased in Buffalo, NY during an extended work stay and served with a Cuban cigar freshly purchased on a trip to Toronto. Fruity and complex, I have always favored the flavor profiles and complexity of Taylor ports)

Rob's Top Ten (in order of preference)

1. 1995 Sanford Barrel Select Chardonnay (Tasted at the winery and subsequent bottles that were purchased at Sanford. The 1996 is also excellent, but I give a slight edge to the 1995. This wine represents my Platonic ideal of chardonnay: beautiful nose, tropical fruits and pear on the palate, with a buttery vanilla finish - full-bodied, but impeccably balanced. The wine may also get bonus points because it was tasted at the charming, rustic original Sanford tasting room, poured by Chris Boroughs, long before the "Sideways" inspired boom hit the Santa Maria Valley wine country).
2. 1977 Fonseca Vintage Port (I have been fortunate enough to taste this wine a couple of times, starting in college, one of the times being the result of Sunil having to purchase a bottle for claiming that he failed a final and instead receiving an "A" or something like that. Incredibly complex and powerful port that still tastes young and as if it can last for decades to come. An absolute bench mark. I tend to prefer Fonseca's port style a bit over other houses, like the also excellent Taylor Fladgate.)
3. 1994 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet (Tasted upon release at the winery at which time the wine was absolutely fantastic! Incredibly well structured with a beautiful balance of currant, plum, cedar, tar and well-integrated tannins. Tasted about a decade later at which time the wine had unfortunately lost some of its luster.)
4. 1986 Pichon Baron Pauillac (Matt and I purchased a half a case of this benchmark bordeaux in college - yes, weird - and I have been tasting it periodically since. Very complex Bordeaux with distinctive raspberry, currant and pencil lead components. Has aged very well throughout the years.)
5. 1994 Byron Estate Chardonnay (Tasted at the winery and throughout the years from purchased bottles, including a close to ten year-old bottle. This is chardonnay was absolutely enormous with distinctive Santa Maria Valley pineapple-and-cream flavors - a hedonistic fruit-, cream- and vanilla bomb.)
6. 1995 Opus One (Tasted at the winery upon release during the "Matt-and-Rob-Wealthy-Industrialists" trip to Napa Valley. Even the equine sight of the Baronesse Philippine de Rothschild could not obscure the beauty of this wine. Very full-bodied and complex, with a distinctive and desirable tar component.)
7. 2003 Talley Rincon Vineyard Pinot Noir (Tasted at the winery upon release. Fantastic pinot, by far my favorite of Talley's releases as it hits a Goldilocks-type balance between pure pinot fruit and full-bodied-ness. Very complex. I still have one bottle - will be interesting to see how this has aged.)
8. 1997 Andrew Murray Esperance (Tasted at the winery, where it was a little young and extremely tannic, and then about 3 years later where the bottle was at its absolute peak! Very inky dark color, complex fruit and a fantastic finish.)
9. 1994 Dow Vintage Port (Tasted with Matt in combination with a great Cuban cigar. Huge black-strap port with great tannic structure, but still very enjoyable in its youth. This should have a very long life ahead of it.)
10. 1996 Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay (Initially tasted at the winery, and several times subsequently. Very big, oaky chardonnay that is well-balance and extremely complex. I have liked subsequent vintages as well, but the 1996 is my favorite)

Some Favorite California Chardonnays

I like California Chardonnay. It gets a good deal of bad press owing to its full-bodied, creamy character, often buttery flavors, and heavy use of new toasted oak. Some argue that they are difficult to pair with food. Maybe, but give me some fresh grilled salmon and a California Chardonnay and I'm happy.

The key to an excellent California Chardonnay is balance. There should be a lot of fruit, think white peach, pineapple, mango, pear, apple, some acidity, some well integrated oak (vanilla, toasty smoky aromas) and some have a yeasty, doughy character from their yeast contact. I tend to like Chardonnays with a more crisp, lean style; not too ripe. Ripe Chardonnays develop more of a caramelly, overrripe pineapple element.

Following is a list of six Chardonnays at various price points that are my go-to Chardonnays year-in and year-out. These Chardonnays have an excellent track record of quality over many years and despite their obvious quality relationship to vintage quality, are amazingly consistent.

1. Beringer Private Reserve ($25)

I have been drinking this wine for at least 10 years now. It is an amazing wine of very high quality. This might be the Chardonnay I would recommend as the "quintessential" chardonnay. The 1996 was stuff of legend, and I am really enjoying the 2006 right now, which is a leaner style than the 2005. Very easy to find.

2. Chateau St. Jean Reserve ($28)

Another wine that I have enjoyed since visiting Napa while in college. St. Jean's Chardonnays are exellent across the board. They have a Belle Terre, Durrell and Robert Young vineyard bottling, all of which are great. The reserve is a blend of wine from these vineyards and sees partial malolactic fermentation. This chardonnay has an incredibly complex nose - I can swirl this in the glass forever. I have had the last 4 years and all are excellent. Specialty wine stores only - not common.

3. Newton Unfiltered ($45)

Probably one of the finest, most complex chardonnays I have had. Newton is well known and admired by Robert Parker and he notes that this Chardonnay is particularly know for its ageability. I have not tried holding onto a bottle for more than 2 years or so. They used to carry this at Costco. Fairly common

4. Cambria Bench Break ($30)

Along with Melville, Cambria makes one of my favorite Chardonnays from the Santa Barbara/ Santa Maria area. The Katherine's vineyard bottling is ubiquitous, and good quality, but their specialty bottlings are much more interesting. I have enjoyed the Bench Break vineyard bottling over the Rae's and Single Clone bottlings for the past few vintages. In a more tropical fruit style typical of Santa Barbara Chardonnay, it still has nice acidity and fine balance. Not easy to find.

5. Melville ($20-30)

Melville has a Verna's ($20) bottling as well as a Santa Rita Hills estate bottling ($30) that are both great. Made by the highly talented Greg Brewer (of Brewer-Clifton and the unoaked, non-malolactic Chardonnay Diatom fame) these wines are crisp and full of flavor. Not necessarily as complex as Beringer or St. Jean, but exhuberantly fruity and enjoyable. Fairly easy to find.

6. Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve ($12)

Arguably the best $12 Chardonnay out there. I remember this being one of the first "higher end" Chardonnays that I ever tried. At that time, higher-end meant higher than the $7 Columbia Crest Chardonnay available at Trader Joes. Not as complex as those above, but a high quality, consistent wine and a tremendous value.