'SHOCK' WAVES CALIFORNIA WINEMAKERS MAY REQUIRE A COURSE CORRECTION.

Byline: Stories by Eric Noland

Staff Writer

Photos by Andy Holzman

Staff Photographer

Mon Dieu! What in the wide wine world has happened to California cabernets and chardonnays since the Paris Tasting of 1976?

That seminal event, at which California wines bested their French counterparts in a blind tasting, demonstrated that California's fledging producers of fine wine could employ French techniques and beat the Old World at its own game. The movie "Bottle Shock, which opens today, is very loosely based on it.

But there are many wine merchants and restaurant sommeliers who believe California's vintners have since strayed off course.

In the case of Napa Valley's vaunted cabernet sauvignons, "winemaking started to change dramatically in the early '90s," said Kaj Stromer, domestic wine buyer for Woodland Hills Wine Co. "French sensibility means restraint and an aversion to overly fruity, high-alcoholic, overripe wines, which is the way too much of California has gone. ... It's not as food-friendly, not as elegant. They have lost their sense of place."

Randy Kemner, owner of The Wine Country in Signal Hill, believes that a hell-bent pursuit of the right kind of acclaim is to blame. "Much of the market has been driven by ratings points," he said, "and the ratings points particularly of Wine Spectator (magazine) and Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. They're very influential. ... Their high ratings come from wines that are aggressive and assertive and not wines of delicacy and finesse. A wine that is made to harmonize with food will get an 85 rating."

Chardonnay has suffered a similar fate. A preponderance of oakiness and buttery tones have caused it to fall out of favor as a food-friendly wine, replaced on the table by New Zealand sauvignon blancs and other varietals.

How different things were in '76, when California bloodied the upturned noses of a panel of French wine experts in a blind tasting in Paris. In the cabernet category, a '73 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars was declared superior to a '70 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. Among the chardonnays, a '73 Chateau Montelena from Calistoga won out over a '73 Meursault-Charmes.

"Bottle Shock" concentrates entirely on the realm of Chateau Montelena, but not well. Somehow excluded entirely from the script is Mike Grgich, the winemaker who crafted that chardonnay -- and today has his Grgich Hills label in Napa.

"It is possible to make wines of quality and consistency and balance and longevity," Grgich, 85, said in a phone interview. "Those were the major elements back then."

He decried California's current overuse of malolactic fermentation, which tinkers with a chardonnay's natural acidity (and, hence, food-friendliness), as well as the decision to let the wine sit in oak casks for extensive periods. "In my judgment, wine is like food," Grgich said. "If you taste salt, it's too salty. If you taste oak, it's too oaky."

Stag's Leap and Chateau Montelena were the headline-grabbers at the Paris Tasting, but California wines actually took five of the top eight positions in the contest. In his history, "Napa," author James Conaway records that when the paper bags came off the bottles, one judge tried to change some of his scores, while others refused to give up their tasting notes. (These intriguing details didn't make it into the movie, either.)

Each of the winning wines retailed for $7. According to a Consumer Price Index conversion table, that would translate to $27 today. But California's reputation has grown to the point that consumers who wish to sample contemporary wines comparable to the darlings of '76 should expect to pay from $35 to $70 for a cabernet and $25 to $50 for a chardonnay.

Finding wines made in styles similar to the classics of '76 is the tricky part. It means gravitating to winemakers who don't follow ratings-chasing fads. For cabernet purism, Stromer of the Woodland Hills Wine Co. suggests Clark-Claudon, Corison, Dunn and Neal. For chardonnay, Walter Hansel, Ramey, Grgich Hills and Tandem.

Bart Thompson, general manager at Darren's Restaurant in Manhattan Beach, says Testarossa and Forman are two chardonnays on his wine list that fit the category, while the '05 Joseph Phelps is one of his most reliably popular cabernet sauvignons.

Some relative bargains are out there, too. Clos du Val, whose cabernet placed eighth out of 10 at the Paris Tasting, produces a commendable 2005 Napa Valley cab for $32, said Kemner of The Wine Country. He also likes Talley's 2006 Estate Chardonnay Arroyo Grande Valley, which can readily be found for about $25. Another value-priced cabernet of high quality is the 2005 Honig Napa Valley ($32), said Ray Wolkoff of Red Carpet Wine & Spirits in Glendale.

This much is certain: To find wines today that stand up to the ones that stunned the Paris panel, you don't have to invest in any trendy cult wines, for which bottle shock gives way to sticker shock.

"That's more hype than great wine," Stromer said. "There are well-made, high-quality wines from good vineyards, by people who just know what they're doing. They're not wrapped up in the vanity of this enterprise."

In other words, winemakers who respect the genesis of California's fine-wine emergence.

[e-mail]

[phone]

california - wine industry - production - profile - list - comparison - paris Tasting of 1976 - us - french - movie - bottle shock