Discovering Oregon Chardonnay

Posted 01/30/2008 at 11:11 AM by Chris

Oregonian winemakers are always making comparisons between Burgundy and the Willamette Valley, particularly with Pinot Noir and the similarity in climate and location on the Northern equator longitude. I can definitely see many parallels in wines from these two areas, and one of the things I like most is that the wines are never quite the same from year to year. While there is a consistent style in higher acidity, cleaner, pure fruit with slightly herbaceous notes and minerality, the weather during harvest plays more of a factor in defining the vintage. In contrast to California, where we are blessed with consistently warm optimal sunshine, nearly every year here is quite good, with minor exceptions. With these thoughts in mind, I was always wondering why no one was talking about Chardonnay in Oregon. If there are great Oregon Pinots being compared to great Nuits St Georges and Gevrey Chambertin, why are there no Oregon Chardonnays being compared to Puligny or Meursault? Certainly Chardonnays in both regions share similar climate patterns and longitude like Pinot Noir.

My questions led me to a group called the Oregon Chardonnay Alliance (ORCA), an organization of Chardonnay producers started by a small group who wanted to promote the rising quality of this maligned grape. It was about five years ago when I attended the Oregon Pinot Camp that I even had a second thought about Chardonnay from Oregon. I was visiting the Carleton Winemakers Studio and tasting with Eric Hamacher, when the epiphany hit me. Eric poured a 2001 Hamacher “Cuvee Diversees” Chardonnay for me in the winery and I was stunned at the complexity and intensity of what I had anticipated to be another boring starter wine I was obliged to taste in order to pay my dues before trying Pinot Noir. I was amazed to actually taste minerality and bright acidity, two elements so elusive in North American Chardonnay. On top of that invigorating base of structure lay a warm blanket of ripe baked yellow apple and grilled pear fruit with a slice of vanilla and spices from a small percentage of new oak. Certainly not the ultra ripe, fat, melted vanilla ice cream and buttered popcorn flavors of so many other manipulated new world Chardonnays. I left the tasting inspired that I had found a truly exciting new discovery in wine.

If you happen to be one of the rare few that have ever tried an Oregon Chardonnay, you are probably questioning my excitement. Most of these wines were insipid, flat, underripe and uninspired. Up until just 10 years ago, the culprit, a late ripening, large cluster Chardonnay clone called “Clone 108,” was nearly entirely replaced by either Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir or the new “Dijon” Chardonnay clone. The transformation in quality and the savior for Chardonnay in Oregon arrived one day in 1984 at Oregon State University in a box with a return address that said “Dijon.” This shipment was many years in the making and the result of a trip that pioneer David Adelsheim made to Burgundy in 1974. On that trip, David was struck by the smaller cluster vines and the most important fact that Chardonnay here ripened at the same time as Pinot Noir. Back home in the Willamette Valley, Chardonnay grapes were fat and bloated with water. Chardonnay in Oregon ripened nearly two weeks after Pinot Noir and was thus susceptible to the rains that further diluted and rotted the grapes. David knew the answer must be in the clones, so he started the process to import these cuttings back to Oregon which took over 10 years.

Between 1984 and 1988, seven new Dijon Chardonnay clones were cleared by OSU, creating a revolution and a defining quality change in Oregon Chardonnay. The old inferior Clone 108 was ripped out and replaced by Dijon in the 1990’s and quality has improved dramatically. The smaller, more intensely flavorful grapes now ripen fully with the Pinot Noir and are harvested before the threat of rain. The wines have complexity and vibrancy. Imagine your favorite big, fat, buttery California Chardonnay with a dose of minerals and crisp, bright acidity. In fact, I believe that would also describe some of the great white Burgundies, and therein answers the question I posed initially as to why Chardonnay from Oregon never drew comparisons to Burgundy the way Pinot Noir so often does.

Last year I was asked to do the wine list for a beautiful new restaurant in Portland, Oregon’s trendy Pearl District called Bay 13. The menu was primarily focused on fresh fish with a raw bar and sushi prepared on premise. I made a somewhat controversial decision to have an entire section devoted to just Oregon Chardonnay. There would be some white Burgundy selections, but no California Chardonnay on the list. It has been an amazing success and has allowed me to develop new relationships with the Oregon Chardonnay Alliance, as well as many other amazing Chardonnay producers like John Paul of Cameron Winery and David Autrey of Westrey Winery. I would invite you to take a chance and search out one of these producers, or the highly recommended Chardonnays from Domaine Serene, Ponzi, Domaine Drouhin or Chehalem. The wines using the Dijon clones in Oregon are distinctly different and offer lush, rich, ripe fruit and spicy aromatics similar to California, but the mineral, earth and bright acidity gives these wines a uniqueness and sense of place that is so attractive in these days of mass produced, overblown, sweet and manipulated Chardonnay.

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