Riverbench Wines and How Wrong the Gurus Were

We were told by some of the wines gurus when we first began writing about wine that when our taste for wine truly matures we will learn to appreciate the cabernet sauvignon. Our answer to them was that we had been there and gone and have graduated to the true beauties of the pinot noir. Cabs are great, they are the most popular red wine in the world, but the pinot noir is rapidly catching up as more and more wine lovers finally experience one and are amazed at its beauty and elegance. Cabs are usually hard and austere unless they have been given several years to age. A fairly new discovery, malolactic fermentation, a bacterial fermentation that is induced to the finished wine to change the naturally formed malic acid to the gentler lactic acid, is being almost universally adapted in all wines to make them drinkable sooner. For cabs it is a world wonder in that it reduces or in some cases eliminates the need for bottle aging after purchase.

The antithesis of the pinot noir and a grape that seeks the same growing conditions is the chardonnay. This very popular white wine is the perfect all around choice where a white wine is called for. The wine is neither too fruity, too acid, too flowery or too neutral. The flavors and aromas are there in dignified but never overpowering amounts. The one thing that makes a chardonnay wine different from the rest is that it is almost always associated with oak. Chardonnays are often aged in oak and some are even fermented in oak. Inferior chards will usually be over oaked to hide any of the off flavors or aromas. It was the famed vintner Louis Martini who said of all wines, “if you can smell oak or if you can taste oak; it is too much oak.” Oak in wines should be applied as a great chef uses spices, you know they are there but you really never taste them.

Riverbench Estate 2009 Pinot Noir ($28). The fruit for this wine is drawn from one of the better pinot noir grape growing regions in California, the Santa Maria Valley. As proof of its quality, the wine has a dark ruby color, a color achieved only by pinot noir wines that have received special attention. The Riverbench 2009 Pinot Noir presents a broad spectrum of flavors, with strawberries, cherries, plums, and wild summer berries being the most prominent. There are also other flavors lying in the background with oak and an earthy mushroom flavor being the most obvious. The finish is long and full of fruit, smoke and cloves and also exhibits the rarely found hint of incense. This very well made wine is drinkable now or can be laid down for as long as five years, to gain additional complexity and depth.

Riverbench 2010 Bedrock Chardonnay ($24.). Riverbench 2010 Bedrock Chardonnay has been made au natural, without any oak used in the production or aging so the true and pure flavors and aromas of the grape is unaffected by anything external, The traditional Chardonnay aromas of pineapple, apple and citrus carry over to the flavor and merge into a collage of tropical fruits. There is also that elusive creamy mouth feel often found in the more expensive chardonnays expanding the seductive nature of the finish. This is a chard not to be missed even if it is just to try a pure, unoaked chardonnay

Riverbench 2009 Estate Chardonnay ($26.). Here is a perfect example of a modern oaked but not over oaked chardonnay. The aroma stresses tropical fruits and almond with a hint of oak lying in the background. The flavor is alive with sweet apple, with pineapple, cocoanut and banana bringing up the rear. The finish remains true to the style and is long, complex and very interesting. This too is an excellent chardonnay and by getting both of them you can learn the differences between quality oaked and un-oaked chardonnays.