Dunne on Wine: No-oak trend extends to St. Supéry's chardonnay

Squash-blossom quesadillas were on the menu, and instinctively I thought sauvignon blanc would be the wine to pour with them. But I also needed to experiment with a couple of chardonnays, so we pulled the corks and commenced to see not only how well they would go with the quesadillas but how well they compared with each other.

Both chardonnays were by St. Supéry Vineyards & Winery in the Napa Valley. One was St. Supéry's 2005 Napa Valley Chardonnay ($18.50), the other St. Supéry's 2004 Napa Valley Chardonnay ($18.50). Both were released recently.

Except for the vintages, the labels are identical. The wines, however, are radically different.

The 2004 is right out of the mold for chardonnay as it customarily is being made in the Napa Valley -- dense, creamy, weighty and sweet with oak. Sure, it's a veritable basket of ripe summer fruit, everything from melons to figs, but the butter, butterscotch and sweet vanillin flavors from malolactic fermentation and from fermenting and aging the wine in oak barrels are what take over the palate.

In contrast, the 2005 is a leaner, more delicate take on chardonnay with a subtle but intriguing fruitiness that shifts quietly from pear to apple to lemon, with an alluring hint of the herb lemon verbena in the finish.

Here's the thing: In contrast to the 2004, the 2005 was made entirely without malolactic fermentation and without any exposure to oak, either during fermentation or aging.

With the 2005 vintage, St. Supéry plunged dramatically into a small but growing current of change in the way winemakers approach chardonnay: They're stripping it down to its essence -- fermented grape juice alone, without any oak influence. What they're hoping for is a style of chardonnay more like the austere and sharp Chablis of France, a wine friskier and more agile at the dinner table.

Given consumers' clear preference for oak in chardonnay, this is a huge gamble, but St. Supéry is so confident that the trend has legs that all of its chardonnay henceforth will be made without seeing an oak barrel. The 2004 is the last St. Supéry chardonnay to be like so many other chardonnays coming out of the Napa Valley, complicated with secondary fermentation and heavy with wood.

This development -- other wineries picking up on it include Sierra Vista, Three Thieves, Bocage and Morgan -- is encouraging, providing consumers with an alternative in chardonnay that, while lighter and more understated than what they usually find in the varietal, nonetheless is refreshingly limber and zesty compared with so many lethargic and dull interpretations.

As for which style was best with the squash-blossom quesadillas, I preferred St. Supéry's oak-free chardonnay, finding its clarity, direct fruit and refreshing buoyancy more in keeping with the naturalness and lightness of the dish. Regardless of food, it's also an easier wine to drink on a warm summer evening than the oaked 2004.

Sauvignon blanc also would have worked, as well as a dry or an off-dry riesling, but if an approaching summer meal is to include squash-blossom quesadillas, look around for an oak-free chardonnay.

A Knight to the rescue

After 37 years of helping protect public health, Mel Knight, director of the Environmental Management Department for Sacramento County, is about to retire. But he'll continue to help protect public health, perhaps by growing wine grapes, for sure by continuing to compile his annual list of high-value gold-medal wines from the California State Fair competition.

For the past five years, Knight has gone through the complete results from the State Fair judging to list bargain wines that have won gold or double-gold medals, and then distributed the roundup to friends.

Perhaps in retirement he will find a way to make his handy guide more readily available.

This year's list is too long to publish here, but here are some wines I recognize as available in the Sacramento market (Knight has a more liberal definition of "low-cost" wines than I do; he has one wine on his list for $28, but I cut these selections off at $10):

• Fetzer 2005 Valley Oaks Chardonnay ($9)

• Two Tone Farms 2004 Chardonnay ($10)

• Redwood Creek 2005 Pinot Grigio ($8)

• Fetzer 2005 Valley Oaks Gewurztraminer ($9)

• Bogle 2005 Sauvignon Blanc ($9)

• Dancing Bull 2004 Sauvignon Blanc ($10)

• Pepperwood Grove 2005 Viognier ($8)

• Forest Glen 2005 White Zinfandel ($9)

• Turning Leaf 2005 White Zinfandel ($8)

• Ballatore Gran Spumante ($6)

• Cycles Gladiator 2004 Central Coast Merlot ($10)

• Trinchero Family Sutter Home 2005 Pinot Noir ($6)

• Cycles Gladiator 2004 Central Coast Syrah ($10)

• Fetzer 2004 Valley Oaks Zinfandel ($9)

Happy hunting, and a happy retirement to Mel Knight, but please keep in touch.

Down Under, they're up with Chuck

Australia is dealing with a wine glut not unlike the California surplus that gave rise to the Charles Shaw line of $2 wines three years ago. The Shaw wines came to be known as "Two Buck Chuck," which the Aussies have latched on to to describe generically their own new $2 wines, even though they aren't labeled under the Charles Shaw brand.

We're disappointed. Given the Australian wine industry's clever marketing schemes, we've been expecting their inevitable $2 wines to be called "two buck-a-roo."

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.