Chardonnay

A legend in Napa Valley, Croatian born winemaker Mike Grgich has witnessed -and played a major role in- the transformation of Napa Valley from rural farm town to international wine superpower. His Chardonnays have been victorious at two of the most celebrated wine tastings in modern history. In 1976, the Chardonnay he crafted for Napa's Chateau Montelena beat the best wines France had to offer in the wine industry altering Judgment of Paris. A year later, he partnered with Austin Hills of the Hills Bros. Coffee family to launch Grgich Hills Cellar. The extraordinary winemaking continued as in 1980 Grgich Hills Chardonnay beat 221 other Chardonnays for first place in a blind tasting at The Great Chicago Showdown. The moniker "The King of Chardonnay" soon followed. I had the great fortune of chatting with Mike Grgich recently. What follows is his take on the past, present, and future of Napa Valley wine and Grgich Hills.

When veteran winemaker Steve MacRostie went looking for a new vineyard to plant his chardonnay, pinot noir and syrah he discovered Wildcat Mountain in the Carneros/Sonoma region.  "I felt Wildcat would push the envelope, something untried.  The cooler climates, the stressful site, the thinner soils; this is not a safe place to set up a farming operation.  In a business sense it was probably rather stupid," he said plainly.

Greg La Follette is one of the most revered winemakers in Sonoma County, if not the entire wine industry. His wines at both Flowers and his own label, Tandem Wines, have earned numerous accolades. In person, however, his prominence seems more like water under the bridge. Strikingly unpretentious and engaging, Greg La Follette shows far more interest in what you think about his wines today than he does about how they score or what critics say. IntoWine had the good fortune of chatting with Greg recently about winemaking, terroir, and the blessed curse of wine scoring systems.

It's almost like a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan film. A young man meets the woman of his dreams after his sailboat is chased ashore by a hurricane. Marriage and career success ensue and years later the happy couple end up running a Sonoma winery that just so happens to produce some of the finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in all of California. Yes, Ken Freeman's life story may indeed be one of which movies are made. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Ken Freeman about his eponymous winery, Freeman Vineyard and Winery, as well as his unique path to becoming a revered wine maker.

Brice Cutrer Jones is virtually synonymous with California Chardonnay (Hint: Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay). The logical assumption is that the topic de jour of any interview with him would be Chardonnay. However, I recently sat down with Cutrer Jones to discuss - of all things- his foray into Pinot Noir. After 25 years as a renowned producer of fine Chardonnay, Cutrer Jones has done an about face and is now applying the same passion, skill, and marketing savvy he and his team used to become world class makers of Chardonnay, into making what he refers to as Noble Pinot Noir.

I learned to cook from my Mom, cooking programs on PBS, and a wide range of authors whose books perched on the kitchen shelves, patiently waiting for the moment they were needed. We reached for these books frequently, usually three and four at a time, spreading them across the kitchen table to compare ingredients and techniques. We had a rule – always follow the recipe as it was written the first time, then we could improvise. Of course, we broke this rule frequently,

Chateau Ste. Michelle is one of the largest and most revered wineries in America. Located in Washington's Columbia Valley, Chateau Ste. Michelle is often -and mistakenly- overlooked by oenophiles searching for fine American wine. It isn't often that one gets to "talk shop" with the winemaker from a winery of the caliber of Chateau Ste. Michelle -they tend to be awfully busy people after all- but IntoWine.com had the good fortune of being able to do just that. What follows is our chat with Chateau Ste. Michelle Winemaker Bob Bertheau.