The California specials

Beringer Sparkling White Zinfandel is actually regarded as America’s favorite rosé,” says Michael Kluczko, senior vice president and regional supply/ head of winemaking at Treasury Wine Estates. “It is very easy to drink, and millions of truckloads are sold each year.” The blush-colored wine was the welcome beverage at a cocktail reception with private collectors at the residence of American Association of Singapore general manager Toni Dudsak.

It was 6:30 p.m. on a Monday and most of the guests had just wrapped up a long day at work at the Lion City. Light and refreshing, the zinfandel was the perfect beverage to loosen ties around the neck, stretch out tense muscles, and pretty much just get the conversations flowing. A toast was raised to welcome Kluczko, an Australian citizen born into a winemaking family in Barossa Valley who has since relocated to California where he continues to produce wine. It was not long before big smiles and friendly chatter began to spread across the room. 

This is the kind of effect that Beringer has on people. Founded in 1876 by brothers Jacob and Frederick Beringer in Napa Valley, then an undiscovered wine region, the brothers took advantage of the volcanic soil to grow grapes, and dug out the hills to provide storage and aging tunnels that would maintain the temperature of roughly 14.44 C (58 F) needed to produce fine wines. Apart from placing Napa Valley on the map as one of the world’s premier wine-growing regions, it has earned Beringer the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley.

The hearty buffet spread of salad, pasta and pies personally prepared by hostess Toni Dudsak and her friends

The Stars of Napa Valley

The next day, we were invited to sample more wines over lunch at the American Club on Claymore Hill. I was really excited because Chateau St. Jean was part of the menu. I prefer whites to reds, and one of my favorites of all time is the Chateau St. Jean 2009 Chardonnay. It boasts a beautiful, mildly toasted oak flavor, tinged with a hint of butter. The winery, established in 1973, pioneered the single vineyard chardonnay in California, and the reason for its popularity is that wines are grape-based instead of oak-based. “We want the oak to be supporting the wine and not sitting on top of it,” explains Kluczko.

But while it had its roots in chardonnay, Chateau St. Jean also boasts of the highly acclaimed Cinq Cepages. French for “five grapes,” the Bordeaux-style blend is composed of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Each component is aged separately for 26 months in French and American oak before blending. Dense, rich and complex, the 1996 vintage became the first and only Sonoma wine to be awarded Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator; in 1999 it was named the No. 2 Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator; and over the years, Cinq Cepages has averaged a 90+ rating in Wine Advocate.

“What makes a great wine is concentration, power, complexity, length and completeness,” Kluczko explains. “The most important for me is that all wines have a shape, either in the beginning of the palate, or the end of the plate.”

Warm smoked salmon with seaweed puree, Avruga caviar and Champagne cream sauce was prepared exceptionally on the second floor of the American Club.

These are quite precisely the characteristics that have made Beringer and Chateau St. Jean stars of Napa Valley. The most historic and awarded winery in America today, Beringer went from being the only winery of the year to 11-time winner of the winery of the year, and the only one to win Wine Spectator’s “Wine of the Year” award for both a red (1986 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon) and a white (1994 Private Reserve Chardonnay) wine. Their private reserve, a blend of both valley and mountain grapes, is aged in French oak for two years, and is described by Kluczko as “opulent, elegant and profound.”

Blending A Private Reserve

We were then given the chance to blend several grape varieties to come up with one closest to the 2007 Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a dense, concentrated wine and with good aging potential, rated 97 points by Robert Parker. Fellow Pinoy, chef J Gamboa of Milky Way, El Cirkulo, Azuthai and Tsukiji, who was in town as a judge for the annual Food and Hotel Asia, and I concentrated on sampling the blends (hey, tough job, but someone’s got to do it!) so we could guess the percentages.

I felt like Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory, pumping dark red liquid into a syringe, carefully calculating the milliliters of grape blends from the different vineyards: St. Helena (cassis, dark chocolate and licorice), Steinhauer (rich blackberry flavors) and Marston (earthy mineral flavors). We, an intimate group of chefs, restaurant owners, and food and wine enthusiasts, all got two attempts, and in the end, nobody got it right. The correct blend was 14 percent St. Helena, 73 percent Steinhauer and 13 percent Marston.

Regardless, the exercise was enough for us to know that California — with its terrain, climate and terroir — produces some of the world’s greatest wines (with compositions that are not always predictable). Best of all, it has something for everyone — from light and young to elegant and structured. The strings of accolades that have followed are only there to affirm their palate-pleasing characteristics.

Wine tasting early in the morning: A tough job but someone's got to do it.

“Now do you see why I moved to California?” Kluczko chuckles.

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Stags' Leap vs. Stag's Leap

Did you know there is Stags’ Leap and Stag’s Leap?

One of the oldest wineries in Napa Valley, Stags’ Leap’s earliest label dates back to 1893. Today, it is known for the petite syrah, so much so that the Wikipedia site of the grape (also known as durif) features a photo of Stags’ Leap on the site.

Stag’s Leap, on the other hand, was founded in 1970, and made a name for itself by besting four top-ranked Boudreaux’s at a blind tasting in Paris in 1976. The 1973 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon was the first California wine to beat a French one in a blind test. Overnight, this transformed California became a major player on the world stage.

I am reminded of a book on punctuation I read entitled Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. In this case, who knew that the re-positioning of one apostrophe could tell an entirely different wine story altogether?

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In the Philippines, Beringer and Chateau St. Jean are distributed by Happy Living. For more information, call 895-6507 to 08, 896-0336, e-mail info@hlpcwines.com.ph or visit www.hlpcwines.com.ph.

For more information on Treasury Wine Estates, visit www.treasurywineestates.com.

You can reach me at http://www.twitter.com/cheryltiu.