We Hear That a Lot

Not a day goes by that we don’t hear someone in our tasting room say:

“I normally do not like chardonnay, but this wine is delicious.”

We get it. Our chardonnays are not what you have come to expect from California. We will never try to tell you they taste like white Burgundy either.  Please.

All three Obsidian Chardonnays from Poseidon Vineyard are distinctly unique. There are several reasons why they don’t taste like other chardonnays. The best way to learn about it is to taste them for yourself. So if you happen to have a bottle Obsidian Chardonnay nearby, go pull a cork (or three). We’ll wait.

Ready? OK, let’s dive in. There are 4 topics we’d love to tell you about which make our Chardonnays like no other.

• Vineyard Character: Seaside = Cold & Foggy = Slow Ripening = Fresh Flavors
• Vine Clone & Age: 30 year old Clone 4 (Martini) Chardonnay
• Component Winemaking: Harvested, fermented, and aged for specific style
• Hungarian Oak Barrels & Casks: Distinct flavors born from oak, toast, and vessel size

1. Poseidon Vineyard Character

We begin in the vineyard, of course. Poseidon Vineyard sits on a gravel bank at the confluence of the Napa River and Carneros Creek, the southernmost edge of the Carneros-Napa Valley AVA, just a few steps from the clear water of the Napa marina. This geologic ‘Bench”  ensures good drainage – unusual so close to the open waters which bring dense fog and steady wind to our shores.

Aside from the natural beauty of the site, why does any of this matter to you? The effect of these influences on the grapes that grow here is that they grow and ripen very slowly when compared to vineyards just a short distance inland. The fog and wind cool the fruit, so they retain much more acidity than chardonnay grown in warmer locations. The resulting flavors are more lemon-lime, even a little salty or stony, as compared to the apple/pear/pineapple/peach flavors often associated with Napa Valley Chardonnays.

Some California wineries will try to claim that cool climates make their wines taste ‘Burgundian.’ While we also greatly admire the chardonnays from Chablis and Cote de Beaune, we frankly find that comparison to be conveniently lazy. It is intended to distance oneself from an overripe, under-acidic style that made California famous thirty+ years ago. We are proudly Californian, and even prouder of the distinct chardonnay style of our small corner of Napa Valley. Burgundy sits between 47 – 48 degrees north; our latitude in Napa is over ten degrees south of that. Our climate, hours of daylight and amount of UV are dramatically different. We get a ‘solar’ impact that matures skins, seeds, and flavor compounds that Burgundy rarely achieves, and because of the cloud cover and coolness of our unique location, we can do it without the negative impact of heat and prolonged exposure that challenges most of our neighbors.

2. Type of Vines

Poseidon Vineyard was first planted in 1973 by the Molnar Family. At the time, the vines were grown from cuttings known as “Martini Selection” because they were originally taken from Louis Martini’s vineyard just a couple of miles away in Napa Carneros. Martini was one of the first to bring Chardonnay cuttings from France in 1942. Decades later, scientists at UC Davis were able to isolate the plant material and registered it as “Clone 4.” Many early Napa wineries first planted clone 4 chardonnay, though today, there are many dozens of different clones of chardonnay available to for growers to choose.

Clone 4 has developed a reputation in California for  producing full-bodied wines with tropical flavors and great ageability. The truth is this is a grape that gives both texture and acid. So in warmer areas, it allows winemakers to let their fruit get very ripe and tropical and still have the balancing acidity needed to age. However on a cold site like ours, that is inverted–our high-acid chardonnay is balanced by a round and fleshy texture. When we replanted the vineyard in 1997, we stayed with Clone 4 because we love its unique expression on this vineyard.

3. Component Winemaking

We have been growing chardonnay from this vineyard for 50 years, and our winemaker, Alex Beloz, has been crafting these wines for 20 years. That experience gives us really deep knowledge of what results we will achieve from different winemaking techniques, and how to tailor our work to each unique vintage to get consistent results.  For example, we will harvest a portion of the vineyard on the early side to capture crisp flavors, and another portion a couple of weeks later when riper flavors and textures have developed, so that our blended wine is perfectly balanced. We will ferment some lots in stainless steel tanks, and others in oak barrels to achieve different styles. Some lots will go through malolactic fermentation, most will not. And of course wine will be aged in different styles of oak barrels. We call this approach ‘Component Winemaking,’ because it gives our winemaker many distinct components he can use to blend his final wines. This helps him to create balance in each wine, and also allows him to craft three distinct styles of Chardonnay from a single vineyard planted to a single clone.

4. Hungarian Oak Barrels & Casks

Perhaps the most unique fact about our wines is that we use exclusively Hungarian oak barrels and casks from the Kádár Cooperage, which the Molnar family has owned for over 30 years. The type of oak, the way it is aged and toasted, and the size and shape of the vessels all have a dramatic impact on the flavors of our wines. Not because our wines are oaky – quite the opposite actually.

Quercus Petraea – the same species of oak found in France – grown in the cold Carpathian mountains of Hungary is the tightest grain oak in the world. The barrels grow very slowly, making the grain 30% more dense and heavy, resulting in a less evaporative barrel. In addition, the cold climate restricts the development of the tannins and sweet vanillan flavor compounds, and promotes the development of ‘eugenols’ which have flavors of warm spices like cinnamon and clove.

French oak is a great pairing for wines grown in cold climates, which benefit from the richness and sweetness of the oak and a bit of oxygen from the more porous wood. However here in California, where warmth and sunshine give our wines more richness, French oak can impart too much of a good thing, making many California Chardonnays rich and heavy on the palate. It is a much-loved style, but it has never been ours.

Hungarian oak, on the other hand, helps preserve the tension, freshness, and savoriness of the wine through reduced transpiration and the spice vs sweet flavors. It is a style well suited to grapes grown in ‘solar’ climates, like California, the Mediterranean, and high elevations.

At our cooperage in Hungary, we season the wood staves in the forests where it was grown for 3 years, which helps develop these flavors. Our skilled artisans then toast the staves using a proprietary “low and long” heat method to prevent creation of overtly toasty flavors. Finally, they craft the staves into 300L and 500L barrels (vs the standard 225L) as well as 1,000L and 3,000L casks specifically designed for our Chardonnay. (This is a rare luxury, for a winery to own its own cooperage and design barrels for our specific wines! ) The purpose of using these large formats is to get the benefits of fermenting and aging in wood vs stainless steel (ie softening acid and tannin in the wine) but decrease the surface area to reduce the impact of oak flavor on the wine.

But which Obsidian Chardonnay to choose?

So now that you know the four reasons why our chardonnays are so unique, how do you choose the bottling that you prefer? We hope you will enjoy all three of them, though perhaps for different times and purposes.

Obsidian Estate Chardonnay

The chardonnay we have made since the very beginning is the freshest and most citrusy style of the three, and arguably the most widely beloved. Our Estate bottling is 25% tank fermented, 75% barrel fermented, and then aged 9 months in large barrels (only 20% new) and a single 3,000L cask. This is the wine for afternoon sipping and light and lemony foods, for pool parties and family dinners, and for buying by the case.

Obsidian “The Bench” Chardonnay

The Bench is a selection of the most aromatic 500L and 300L barrels (20% new), from grapes grown on the most gravelly section of the vineyard. These barrels were hand-stirred through fermentation to add a creamy, yeasty texture that makes this wine luscious yet still fresh and bright.  This is a wine that gets your attention, and is ready for anything on the menu, especially shellfish. This is the wine that most often makes chard haters and chard lovers agree on a wine.

Obsidian “Boon Fly’s Hill” Chardonnay

Boon Fly’s Hill is a wine that a Chardonnay lover might dream about. Sourced from just a few of the most windswept vines on a low hill named for a historic Napa character, the grapes and clusters are tiny and the flavors super intense. We ferment and age this wine in 100% new 300L oak barrels, but you’d never guess it. The barrels are kept in an extra cold room to ferment slowly, which keeps the aromas and flavors fresh while building yeasty texture. The signature style of this wine is a mandarin orange/apricot flavor with an almost saline and flinty spice. It’s a knockout wine. We don’t even consider a holiday dinner without it.

Whether you are a chardonnay skeptic or long-time fan, we hope you will agree that not all chardonnays are created alike, and enjoy the exploration of the complexities and styles that make this one of civilization’s most beloved wines.