Near the top of the Crushpad 30 White Wine Plan Companion is a simple question:
Style: Describe characters you would like to highlight or downplay in your wine.
Sounds like a simple request but one that I find difficult to put into words. Sure, I’ve had some Roussanne I really liked from both California and the Rhône but what were the specific elements that made these wines something special?
Before we get into this any further, let me back up and talk about the Roussanne grape as this might be new for some readers. Roussanne is native to the northern Rhône region of France where it is one of two white grapes, along with Marsanne, allowed in the appellations of Crozes-Hermitage, Hermitage and St. Joseph. It’s also grown in the southern Rhône where it is often blended with Grenache Blanc, Marsanne and Clairette Blanc.
An inconsistent producer, Roussanne is not grown in large quantities anywhere in the world and there are less than 250 acres planted in California today. The name Roussanne most likely comes from it’s russet-colored berries when ripe. Wine made exclusively from this grape is highly acidic, but high in aromatics, so other white grapes are often blended to balance the final wine.
The Westerly Vineyard was established in 1995 by entrepreneurs Neil and Francine Afromsky. These were the first wine grapes planted in the Happy Canyon area of Santa Barbara’s warmest wine region. They planted 85 acres of Bordeaux and Rhône varieties and developed a name for the vineyard with their Westerly Vineyards brand. Last year they sold the Westerly Vineyard to Chicago financier Jack McGinley, but retained the “Westerly Vineyards” brand and access to the grapes grown in this vineyard. Thus, the vineyard name change and it’s unclear if we can use Westerly on the label of our Roussanne this vintage.
Westerly Vineyards Roussanne is released as a blend simply called, “W Blanc” which is mostly Roussanne (75-80%) blended with Viognier. Both the Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate have favorably reviewed Westerly Vineyards W Blanc which I will excerpt below:
Wine Spectator:
The 2004 W Blanc Estate (75% and 25% respectively) exhibits a light gold color along with a gorgeous nose of honeyed flowers and tropical fruits, good underlying acidity, and bold, exuberant, intense flavors nicely buttressed by acidity and tannin. This serious, French-styled white is reminiscent of an exotic white Hermitage. Drink it over the next several years. 90 points
Wine Advocate:
The 2003 W blanc (80% Roussanne and 20% Viognier) offers up a beautiful, crisp bouquet of rose petals, apricots, and exotic tropical fruits (passion and guava). An elegant, streamlined effort, it exhibits more minerality than most California dry whites, as well as a dry, well-delineated, ravishing style. Drink it over the next 1-2 years. 90 pts.
Although this sounds almost exactly like the style of Roussanne I prefer, it seems to lack the aromatic and flavor characteristics of mandarin orange that I find so fascinating with this varietal. Perhaps this aspect will be in our grapes or we might need to trade some juice with another Crushpad Marsanne group to introduce this complexity. I will buy some bottles of Westerly Vineyards W Blanc to taste for myself and will also bring them to group barrel tastings of our wine as a benchpark.
Whatever the final decision, what do you think we should aim for style-wise with this wine?
I think you should do a lot of research very quickly. Normally I would be trying to be humorous with a remark like that, but I am actually kinda mostly serious! For me, I want both the fruit and spice to be in balance – but not with an excessive floral nose – I don’t need my wine smelling like soap!
After a few years I have found Roussanne (& blends with) to have some amazing spice characters. I would seriously discuss that with the Crushpad folks to see what your options might be for blending to achieve that kind of age-ability.
Is the Westerly (or ex-Westerly) vineyard growing Marsanne as well?
el jefe: you are kind of freaking me out here with your “serious” comment. what kind of research do you suggest? i’ve been tasting a bunch of Cali roussanne blends and will be doing the same with the Rhone. i’m also going to talk with the consulting winemakers at crushpad soon about options. right now we have plenty of viognier for blending with a possibility to trade some juice with a marsanne group.
radius: i think the marsanne is coming from another vineyard and not from westerly; will confirm when crushnet comes back online.
First of all… I want to say that I’m very excited to be participating in this winemaking experience!
I have not tasted a Roussanne, ever, so my expectations are none. I did some research and had my local wine retailer special order a bottle of Roussanne/Marsanne blend from Andrew Murray. Got the bottle last week but have not had a chance to taste it yet. The person that runs the wine store told me that she rarely sees any standalone Roussanne wines. At least the ones that specify the varietal content on the label or marketing sheets.
Marco: Blending is the standard treatment for most Roussanne and I would bet that very few California examples are actually 100% Roussanne (for varietal labeling you only have to put 85% of the named variety in the blend).
Hope to hear how you liked the Andrew Murray… I’ve heard good things about the producer.
Had a bottle of the Stolpmann Avion last night for comparison…I think it had 1 or 2 % Sauvignon Blanc, but the rest was Roussanne. Really nice wine.
So looking forward to this, project, Tim.
I picked up that Andrew Murray as well! I’ll let y’all know how it is if I get to it soon. Figured I’d pick up a few domestic Rhone blends for comparison’s sake. Tim, do you have any recs for a northern Rhone white that isn’t overly expensive – say, under 30 bucks?
Northern Rhone is super expensive but the south is more reasonable. I just posted a review of such a wine for WBW 37; check it out.
Thanks!
I, too, am excited to be part of this project and can’t wait to taste the finished product.
I found the audio from the Blinded by the White seminar from HdR very informative. Although the French accents of the panelists can make it hard to follow at times, the wine makers on the panel provide some great insight into how they made their wines (many of which are made with Roussanne).
Here is a link to where you can listen to the seminar.
http://www.graperadio.com/archives/2007/06/18/2007-hdr-blinded-by-the-white-part-deux/
-James
I enjoy reading this article, thanks for sharing.