by Fredric Koeppel
The Commercial Appeal Sitting at a red light in your Honda Accord, you may gaze at the Mercedes-Benz idling next to you and think, "Gee, I wish I could afford a car like that." Or you might think, "It's just an internal combustion engine on four wheels. Who would pay that much for a car?"
Wine works the same way.
Contentedly sipping your jolly little $12 Cotes-du-Rhone, you might not envy the connoisseur imbibing a bottle of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild that set him back $195. I mean, it's all fermented grape juice, right?
Or, believing you are the type intended for the finer things in life, you might yearn for a cellar filled with the Bordeaux First Growths, the Burgundy Grand Crus and the California Wonder Cabernets that fetch the wine world equivalent of Mercedes-Benz prices.
The point is that today we look at wines from California that sell for prices - about $24 to $50 - most Americans consider beyond the pale. And believe me, $50 doesn't begin to touch the top range of what fine wines made for long aging can bring.
While there may be more honor in creating a brilliant $10 wine that 100,000 people can enjoy rather than a $50 wine that 300 people can afford, expensive wines have a right to exist. When made correctly, they can provide a sense of integrity, exuberance, depth and sheer sensual pleasure that even a terrific $10 wine can't approach.
A high price, of course, doesn't guarantee greatness. As many top-flight wines may be over-oaked as cheap wines may be insipid. The wines reviewed today, though, are all excellent.
First, three essential chardonnays.
- Pure essence of limestone, honeysuckle and pear characterize the superb Chateau St. Jean Robert Young Vineyard Chardonnay 1997, Alexander Valley. This chardonnay, the 26th vintage for St. Jean, almost throbs in the glass with power and resonance, though its focus on apple, pineapple and baking spice flavors and its winsome vanilla-flushed finish reveal gratifying attention to detail. If ever a wine priced at $24 was a bargain, this is it.
- Gathering grapes from Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties, the Landmark Damaris Reserve Chardonnay 1998 displays distinction and elegance, though it's also imbued with size, richness and resonance. A bountiful bouquet of apple, citrus, spice and "blond," creamy oak sifts into a deftly balanced but powerful structure supporting lush, vivid grapefruit-pineapple flavors and a big, vibrant finish. It could age two or three years. Excellent. About $32.
- Creamy and golden as all get-out, the Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay 1998, Napa-Carneros, opens with a vigorous hit of limestone and flint smoothed with green apple and pear. Flawless pineapple-grapefruit flavors edged with crystallized lemon are set into an exceedingly plush, chewy, substantial texture. Excellent with salmon steaks marinated in lemon juice, ginger and garlic and then seared. About $35.
Now, three vineyard-designated merlots and a cabernet sauvignon from Sterling Vineyards.
I served these wines to friends with New York steaks marinated in black, white and green peppercorns ground with Darjeeling tea leaves and made into a paste with red wine and olive oil.
- The Sterling Winery Lake Merlot 1997, Napa-Carneros, offers a wonderfully ripe, fleshy, creamy, minerally bouquet. It's remarkably supple and voluptuous in the mouth, beautifully polished and elegant, bursting with intense black cherry and raspberry fruit barely holding back a tide of oak and minerals. Excellent. About $30.
- The Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch Merlot 1997, Napa Valley, is more muscular than the previous wine, more centered in its minerally oaky qualities, yet richly suffused with sweet ripeness in a velvety texture. Very good. About $30.
- A sort of grandfather of this trio, the Sterling Three Palms Merlot 1997, Napa Valley, displays extraordinary weight and substance; its huge, dense, dusty texture is deeply endowed with qualities of bittersweet chocolate, blueberries 'n' cream and ravishing minerals. Give it two to four years. Exceptional. About $50.
- The bottle that five of us finished off at dinner - we just tasted the others - was the Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 1997, Napa Valley, a wine of such intense vibrancy that it's almost acoustical. Such point and liveliness in a sinewy cabernet seem well-nigh miraculous. Vivid black currant and raspberry fruit painted with classic touches of lead pencil and cedar sweep up through the sumptuous, plush texture. It could profitably age three to five years, but it also drinks beautifully now. Exceptional. About $40.
Six other merlot and cabernet sauvignon wines and blends thereof, all bearing the Napa Valley designation:
- The delightful Freemark Abbey Merlot 1997 opens with elements of cedar, lead pencil and black olive, potpourri and spicy oak. It's smooth and supple but offers the density of polished oak and tannin and very intense, vibrant black cherry-raspberry flavors. Excellent. About $28.
- Blended from 61 percent cabernet sauvignon, 22 percent cabernet franc and 17 percent merlot from one of the Napa Valley's oldest vineyards, the Napanook 1997 is a deep, forceful, muscular wine that still offers plenty of black and red currant and black cherry fruit, spice and dried lavender, coffee and mint and a particularly lithe texture. A vigorous dried mushroom-walnut meal background requires two to four years cellaring. Excellent. About $30.
- Built to last, the Niebaum-Coppola Estate Merlot 1997 feels as if every particle bears the weight of walnut meal, dried herbs and porcini mushrooms and dusty underbrush . Its fruit scents and flavors unfold slowly and reluctantly; as they do, you sense the lush ripeness underneath. Excellent potential, but don't touch it for three to five years. About $32.
- The William Hill Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1996 is big, sturdy and demanding, intense and concentrated. Hints of black currant and raspberry fruit peep from the dusty, polished oak and tannin and forest-floor elements, and something vital and vibrant about it portends excellence in two to four years. About $35.
- As buff and polished as a bodybuilder, the Swanson Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 opens with a ravishing cornucopia of cassis and black raspberry, smoke and ash, dried sage and thyme, cedar and lead pencil, black olive and vanilla and bittersweet chocolate. Wow! It's muscular and lissome in the mouth, dark with oaken spice and concentrated currant and cherry flavors. Great to drink now or in two to four years. Excellent. About $40.
- The Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 is a finely knit, concentrated yet generous wine. Smoke, bacon fat, dried blueberries and lavender, minerals and mushrooms burst from the glass, while in the mouth it's resonant, dusty and chewy, with abundant black currant and black cherry flavors suspended over reserves of underbrush and forest floor. Excellent. About $45.
Koeppel's Pick of the Week
Few sauvignon blanc wines offer the depth and satisfaction of the Chateau St. Jean La Petite Etoile Fume Blanc from the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. For 1998, this wine, which wears its monumental 14.8 percent alcohol like a spring zephyr, is crisp, clean and smoky, more floral than herbal, sweetly ripe with pure citrus-lemon scents and flavors and moderately plush in texture; loads of oak and spice don't weight it down a whit. It was a great accompaniment to mussels poached in white wine and garlic. About $14.
(E-mail koeppel@gomemphis.com or write The Commercial Appeal, PO Box 134, Memphis, TN 38101.)
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