Little-Known West Coast Vintages Head East

Although it can’t be proved, it’s nevertheless safe to say that when it comes to wine, New Yorkers are Europhiles. And why not? Europe still offers the most interesting and varied wines.As a result, New York has always looked more east to Europe than west to California, even today. Partly it’s a matter of availability. Many of California’s most interesting wines are what might be called small-hatch offerings: The local trout snaps them up.Nevertheless, even if New Yorkers aren’t quite as enthralled by California wine as the natives are — and who could be? — some of California’s best wines can be found on local shelves. The trick is to know about these wines. Inevitably, they’re nowhere near as famous here as, say, classed-growth Bordeaux. Then again, they’re nowhere near as expensive either. Score one for the home team.HERE’S THE (CALIFORNIAN) DEALDe La Guerra Chardonnay “Los Carneros” 2006 — If you’re the sort who, upon hearing a recommendation for a California chardonnay, either thinks or says, “I don’t like California chardonnays,” this is the one that will change your mind and palate.Pedigree, as they say in dog circles, helps. Here, the pedigree involves two families and one vineyard. One family is well known in California: the Hyde family, whose eponymous vineyard on the Napa side of the Carneros district is regarded as one of the best in Carneros. Hyde supplies the high-priced likes of the Kongsgaard winery, among other Napa Valley notables.The other family is better known yet: the de Villaine family, which co-owns the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Aubert de Villaine is the co-director of DRC. His American-born and -raised (in Santa Barbara) wife, Pamela, is a Hyde cousin. This is how, Rudyard Kipling notwithstanding, east and west met.The two families jointly created a separate label using Hyde Vineyard grapes called HdV. Two bottlings are offered: the flagship HdV wine and a lower-priced version called De La Guerra, which is sourced from younger vines and sees (to its benefit) less time in oak. The name De La Guerra is no political statement. Rather, it’s a reference to the Hyde family connection to one Don Jose de la Guerray Noriega (1779–1858), who became the commandant of the military post in Santa Barbara and acquired a whopping 500,000 acres of land, thanks to Spanish land grants and purchases. His house, the Casa de la Guerra, is today a historic landmark in downtown Santa Barbara.It’s a good bet that the namesake never tasted a chardonnay, let alone one as good as this newly-released De La Guerra Chardonnay “Los Carneros” 2006. With a pale straw hue, it offers a compelling scent of melons, lemon curd, and a definite whiff of minerals, all of which is carried through in the taste, which is buoyed by a crisp acidity and a light but discernible note of oak barrel “toast.”This is an elegant chardonnay that’s an (old) world away from California’s overripe butterball bottlings. You’ll be surprised — and impressed. $32 at Uva Wines and Blanc et Rouge, both in Brooklyn, as well as K & D Wines in Manhattan, among other stores.Sky Vineyards “Mount Veeder” Zinfandel 2002 — Just when you might think that Californians keep all their small-production treasures to themselves, up pops the ultra-miniaturist (12 acres of vines) Sky Vineyards on several prominent New York retail shelves. This is astonishing, if only because Sky wines are unicorn-rare, even in California.Sky Vineyards is the bonsai-like creation of its artistically talented owner-winemaker Lore Olds. Mr. Olds designs the labels, which change every vintage; he prunes every vine himself, and he makes the wine. It is as monastic a winery as any in the world — even including those run by monks.Sky Vineyards, you see, is very nearly a hermitage. Isolated at 2,000 feet on the ridgeline of Napa Valley’s Mount Veeder, neither the winery nor Mr. Olds’s rustic, art-filled, and decidedly funky cabin has electricity. Mr. Olds says he doesn’t need it.The wines are, paradoxically, among the silkiest and most refined you will find in California. The 2002 Sky Vineyards zinfandel is intense, supple, pristine, devoid of oakiness, and remarkably graceful, delivering strong yet restrained notes of raspberry, wild cherry, and earth. It will age beautifully, by the way: I’ve tasted Sky zins going back to 1981 that still are surprisingly fresh-tasting with nary even a change in color.Serve this to your favorite wine snob and enjoy the show of astonished pleasure. $23 at Crush Wine & Spirits and Chambers Street Wines; $24 at Appellation Wine & Spirits, all in Manhattan.

Little-Known West Coast Vintages Head East

Little-Known West Coast Vintages Head East

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