Au Bon Climat Wild Boy Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, California 2013 (£22.50, Hennings Wine; Noel Young Wines) There is a certain irony in the fact that the most loudly hyped wines in the world at the moment are made by a group of winemakers committed to keeping a sense of proportion in their work. But that’s the situation with the light, elegant wines made by California’s In Pursuit of Balance group of producers, which have been ecstatically received in the sommelier world despite being very much a challenge to the popular caricature of sun-baked California wine as, to borrow from The Great Gatsby, “vast, vulgar and meretricious”. Jim Clendenen’s Au Bon Climat estate in Santa Barbara was an early adopter of this “New California” approach and his latest luminous vintage of Wild Boy, name and label apart, embodies its bid for racy freshness and restraint.
Domaine de la Côte Bloom’s Field Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir, California 2013 (£51, Roberson Wine) According to some of the winemakers at a tasting hosted by 27 of the members of IPOB in London a couple of weeks back, some of California’s old guard aren’t fond of the upstarts. Hate mail has been sent, and some American wine critics have accused them, Donald Trump-style, of making wimpy, un-American wines. For Sashi Moorman, the articulate winemaker behind Domaine de la Côte, however, it’s a question of different, not better. He defines the wines he makes with partner Rajat Parr in the Santa Rita Hills as “wines of place” that express the vineyards as opposed to “wines of style” that taste of a winemaking regime. The Bloom’s Field pinot is certainly distinctive, gossamer light with breathtakingly pure red fruit and a mouthwatering salty quality.
Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, California 2013 (£12.99, Waitrose) Although the IPOB producers – who are based all over California, but often in some of its cooler, more remote hillside and coastal spots – make wines from many different grape varieties, the focus at the London event was chardonnay and pinot noir. Among my many highlights were the ranges of Kutch, Failla, Littorai, Varner and Wind Gap, all of which are special occasion bottles, where the pricing, like the style and quality of the wines, matches Burgundy. So while I’m saving up for a case, I’ll make do with a more traditional, rich, but in its way still balanced red not at the tasting, such as Brazin’s vivid, plummy Zin’.
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