HOW MANY GOLD MEDALS CAN ONE WINE WIN?
SMITH-MADRONE'S '99 CHARDONNAY 'CLEANS UP' &
'01 RIESLING: 3 GOLDS SO FAR THIS YEAR
St. Helena, CA Summer 2002---Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery has accumulated more gold medals for its 1999 Chardonnay than any other California winery, as far as the winery can determine, by compiling results of all of the wine competitions conducted so far this year. Gold medals from the Monterey Wine Competition, West Coast Wine Competition, Los Angeles County Fair Wine Competition and the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition have been awarded, in addition to being the Sweepstakes Winner in Monterey and Best of Class at the West Coast Wine Competition. "Winning such an array of medals validates our hard work, passion and artistic approach to making truly great wine," commented Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone's founder and winegrower.
"I'm impressed with the judges for honoring a California Chardonnay that
epitomizes balance and elegance. This is a direction I champion for
California Chardonnay and I believe consumers are well served when
competition judges respect these characteristics in a wine," commented
Monterey Wine Competition director (and Copley News Service wine writer)
Robert Whitley.
1999 CHARDONNAY The 1999 Chardonnay has also received three silver medals (Orange County Fair, San Francisco Wine Competition, Atlanta International Wine Challenge) and three bronzes (San Diego National Wine Competition, Dallas Morning News Competition, New World International Wine Competition).
Seven years ago brothers Stuart and Charles Smith (the winegrowers and winemakers of Smith-Madrone) decided to revise how they grew and made Chardonnay. The dry-farmed mountain vines are 30 years old and planted on their own roots. Stuart started the process by walking every vineyard row in the 13 acres of Chardonnay. The result: "We decided on lots of little changes, but no large changes. Winter pruning remained the same; in summer more leaves were pruned from the cool "morning" side of the vines and fewer from the warmer "afternoon" side. Leaves were pulled three times - gradually increasing the fruit to additional sunlight, rather than pulling all the leaves at once. Head suckering was started so that more light and breezes could move through the vines," he explains.
Maturity - the way Smith-Madrone decides when grapes are mature and how you determine maturity - was re-examined. "Are the seeds brown enough, are the grapes flavorful enough, how high should the sugar and alcohol be?" they wondered. "Do we keep the refractometer and deep-six the hydrometer or do we keep the hydrometer and toss the refractometer? We changed our definition of maturity for our Chardonnay grapes," Stuart says. Skin contact (pre-fermentation maceration of the must) was rejected. Then there was the variable of oak aging. After considerable experimentation among a myriad of choices, Stuart and Charles chose 100% new two-year-old air-dried oak with a medium toast level, harvested from the forests located near the center of France---Troncais, Alliers and Nevers. The barrels are used for one vintage only and then sold to other wineries. While fermentation continued to take place in the barrel, malolactic fermentation was now encouraged. After fermentation was complete the wine was stirred twice a month so that the solids which had settled to the bottom of the barrel were swirled back around in the wine to impart their subtle flavors.
The wine is 100% Chardonnay and 100% barrel-fermented. The alcohol is 13.4%. The wine has a complex floral perfumed aroma with a hint of toast and lemon. The wine is full, smooth, soft and round on the palate. Smith-Madrone's 1999 Chardonnay has a national suggested retail price of $25.00; 942 cases were made.
2001 RIESLING The 2001 Riesling has been awarded three gold medals so far this year: a gold medal from the Orange County Fair, from the San Francisco International Wine Competition and the only gold medal the Los Angeles County Fair awarded to a dry-style Riesling. Stu Smith explains: "Beginning with our 1983 vintage of Riesling we boldly went where no other American winery had gone for the next 17 years; we changed our label from Johannisberg Riesling to the correct name, Riesling. This is just one example of our commitment to this wonderful and often overlooked varietal. We make our Riesling in a decidedly American style: a minerally middle palate with a soft floral finish and just a hint of sweetness. Our 2001 Riesling has a fruity nose reminiscent of sliced apricots and peaches, with a dry mineral-like middle and a long soft floral finish. The vines are 30 years old; the wine is 100% Riesling. The alcohol is 12.5%; the total acidity is 0.70 grams/100ml; the pH is 3.15 and the residual sugar is 0.7%. The 2001 Riesling has a national suggested retail price of $17.00 and only 1,121 cases were made.
1997 CABERNET SAUVIGNON Stu Smith explains: "Sometimes all things in nature come together at just the right moment and in just the right proportion to allow grapes to flower and mature into absolute perfection. Such is the case with our 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon; the vintage is clearly out of the ordinary. High sugar, brown seeds and loads of flavor as grapes---aromas of earth, cedar and dark cherry of Cabernet Sauvignon; on the palate there is a mouth-filling intensity of fruit and flavor and a finishing sensation of silky smoothness. The wine is huge, a meal in itself. It booms elegantly out at you that this is the essence of Cabernet Sauvignon." The vines are 28 years old; the wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The alcohol is 13.6%. The wine was aged for 25 months in new small American oak barrels; it was neither fined nor filtered. The wine has a national suggested retail price of $35.00 and only 942 cases were made.
THE WINERY Smith-Madrone is an estate winery
dedicated to producing fine wines exclusively from its
own vineyards, founded in 1971 with the purchase of
200 acres on top of Spring Mountain at elevations between
1,600 and 1,800 feet. Smith-Madrone produces approximately
1,000 cases each of Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet
Sauvignon annually, all of which are estate-grown, estate-bottled
and dry-farmed in vividly red rocky Aiken loam volcanic
soil on slopes ranging up to 35%. The winery enjoys
dramatic views of the floor of the Napa Valley and the
Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. In exploring
the property before purchasing it, Stuart Smith discovered
old grape stakes interspersed with the forest's tall
trees, evidence of a vineyard planted in the 1880s and
abandoned with the onset of Prohibition. The name for
the winery came as a tribute to the Madrone trees which
distinguish the property and the Smiths, who pursued
their dream. Their family lineage includes David Hume,
the eighteenth century Scottish philosopher, and the
Fetherolf family, who came to America on the Good Ship
Thistle in 1725.
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