THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510050079
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: HUMBLE STEWARD
SOURCE: JIM RAPER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
NOTES FROM HERE and there:
Byington Winery is in the not-yet-trendy Santa Cruz Mountains viniculture area south of San Francisco, and not many people in Hampton Roads know about it. But a push by the producer into Eastern markets, including ours, is going to change that.
Just now the wines are being stocked by restaurants and shops in the region, and consumers will be wise to try them. A tasting last month in Norfolk presided over by Byington's gregarious young winemaker, Adam Phillips, left me with these impressions:
The best of the Byington wines I sampled was the 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Smith Reichle Vineyard Alexander Valley ($17). Earlybirds may find this at an introductory price of about $14, which would make it a bargain. The wine offers generous dark fruit with notes of mocha and spice. It has strength without being too thick or heavy in alcohol content.
Phillips said this cabernet proves that winemakers depend not so much upon alchemy as they do upon good grapes. Byington is only 8 years old, and its estate vineyards are relatively young. The vineyards also are dedicated to one varietal, pinot noir. So most of the wines are made from purchased fruit. If the winery is to realize its goal of becoming an important player among California producers, it must secure steady supplies of fruit from a set group of better vineyards.
The other reds from Byington that I tasted were well made, if not extraordinary. The 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Heart Ranch Vineyard ($15) has a lovely blackberry backbone, but it is leaner and more tannic than the 1991. The 1992 Merlot Santa Barbara County ($17) tasted too much of oak spiciness and green pepper when it was fresh from the bottle. After 10 minutes in the glass, however, it developed a friendlier cherry flavor.
The 1993 Chardonnay Napa Valley Mt. Veeder ($15) has a tart apple personality and a clean finish, which makes it a winner in my book. Only about 30 percent of the blend went through the secondary malolactic fermentation that can tone down the tartness in white wines and give them a buttery flavor.
The 1994 Chardonnay Napa Valley Twin Mountain ($15) is much like the 1993 Mt. Veeder, which might be expected because the winemaking style was consistent and one of the two mountains from which the 1994 fruit came was Veeder (the other is Wild Horse). The 1994 tasted a bit fruitier, but that could be because it is young and had just been bottled.
The 1993 Sauvignon Blanc San Luis Obispo County French Camp Vineyard ($9) is a fresh, unoaked example of this varietal. It might taste austere to some, but I enjoyed the grapefruit flavor. And, as with the chardonnays, this is a wine that begs to be paired with foods. Seafood would come first to mind. WINE CLASSIC
Here is a final reminder about the Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic:
The kickoff dinner at Williamsburg Winery on Thursday is sold out, as is the preview reception and auction in Virginia Beach on Saturday. But tickets are available for the gourmet brunch with wine importer Robert Kacher at the Town Point Club in downtown Norfolk, 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. next Sunday. Kacher will lecture and pour wines he has imported from France. Tickets are $60 per person.
Tickets also are available for the Classic's tasting gala at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, 1 to 5 p.m., next Sunday. Tickets, $20 in advance or $25 at the door, will give the holder entry to a ballroom full of tasting booths where distributors, importers and winery employees will be dispensing samples and information about their wines. These wines will be from all over the world and of premium or superpremium quality.
As a bonus, the tasting ticket entitles the holder to sit in on a more structured tasting and seminar on the wines of Bordeaux. The seminar will begin at 2 p.m. and be conducted by internationally known wine merchant and writer Kevin Zraly.
For information about tickets to the Sunday events, call 889-9400. BARGAIN FINDS
There are not many chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons in the $5 to $6 price range that can measure up to the two recent releases from California's Corbett Canyon Vineyards.
The 1994 Chardonnay Coastal Classic California ($5) has the apple and pear flavors one expects from a chardonnay, as well as a tingling spiciness that may have come from the small amount of chenin blanc in the blend.
The 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon Coastal Classic California ($5.50) delivers a reasonable amount of dark berry flavors, but also has a cranberry tartness to it. I did not find it to be thin and mouth-drying, as many inexpensive cabernets are. There is a bit of pinot noir in this blend, and, although on paper the merger of these grapes seems wrong, the results are hard to criticize. by CNB