Chateau St. Jean Fumé Blanc, La Petite Étoile Vineyard, Russian River Valley, 2002Mar 01 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Ummm, errr... a tad over-oaked and slightly yeast heavy for my taste. Creamy and rich... I would have preferred something more acidic and bone dry. Pretty good, though.
The "Hot" white (though not "white hot") wine in California this past year seems to have been Sauvignon Blanc. There's been a lot of press about a re-awakening interest in this classic Bordeaux grape. Witness this article in the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/19/WIG2487MQO1.DTL So, then, on to my wine choice this evening, with my dinner of oven-roasted chicken: Chateau St. Jean Fumé Blanc, La Petite Étoile Vineyard Russian River Valley, Sonoma County, California -- 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alcohol: 14.6% by volume - this is a pretty serious & fairly huge Fumé Blanc. Production: The fruit (100% Sauvignon Blanc) was harvested from Chateau St. Jean's La Petite Étoile Vineyard in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. The greater portion of the wine (7/8ths) was fermented in oak barrels, the remainder was fermented in steel tanks. The wine was aged for nine months in small oak barrels (50% of which were new, thus the smokey tone to this wine). Chateau St. Jean claims that no malolactic fermentation (a.k.a. MLF) was employed (this is a practice commonly employed with Chardonnay). MLF, generally, reduces acidity and results in a softer wine (decreased astringency or sourness) with higher levels of Diacetyl (that "warm butter" smell that you sometimes experience in white wine... particularly in Chardonnay wines). Appearance: Pale yellow; clear and clean in the glass. No suspended materials. Bright and flawless. Aroma: Lemon, Kiwi, grass, white flower, a light presence of vanilla married with smoke, and an almost dominating, nutty aroma of yeast lees (yeast sediment). Flavor: Almost creamy mouthfeel, soft and easy on the palate. Despite its high alcohol content, this wine is fairly soft. Oak Vanillin & smoke almost overcrowd the citrus and tropical fruit flavors. Creamy, nutty, yeasty... hey! Where's the fruit?! Kudos, I guess, go to Robert Mondavi for his experimentation in aging Sauvignon Blanc in oak barrels (creating, what he calls, "Fumé Blanc"). And that said: I confess that I like Mondavi's Napa Fumé Blanc a little more than this Sonoma CSJ. Check out sweetpaulie's review here. Price and Availability: The winery's suggested retail price is $20 per bottle; I purchased for about $13 at Costco Wholesale here in Southern California. Recommendations: I love Chateau St. Jean and most of the wines it produces, but this Fumé Blanc borders on being over-oaked and over-cooked for my tastes. I may have liked this wine if a little more of it was fermented in steel tanks. There are more vanilla + smoke + nut tones in this wine than I personally prefer in a Sauvignon Blanc. Tasted best, to me, at around 50°F. Worked well with my chicken dinner, but definitely not the wine I'd serve with fish or most seafood. That said, this wine was pretty good and a fair value for the price I paid. Expressing my preference, I'd recommend something more crisp with less oak. For example: Buena Vista's Sauvignon Blanc -- usually under $10, more aging in stainless steel tanks, and a regular "Best Buy" rating from Wine Spectator magazine. Verdict: Rated "90" by Robert M. Parker, Jr. in the 8/31/02 edition of Wine Advocate, I rate at the lower-end of "4-stars" (88-85 in my book). Appearance: 5/5 Aroma: 17/20 Flavor/Body: 34/40 Finish: 8/10 Overall Quality: 21/25 ------------------------------ My Score: 85 -- 4 stars. I also rated the 1998 and 1999 CSJ Fumé with a score of "4."  |
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