San Diego Union-Tribune
ON WINE ROBERT WHITLEY
Two great whites share the glory

June 16, 2004

The final vote for best white wine at the Critics Challenge International Wine Competition, held over the Memorial Day weekend in San Diego, was very revealing.
Two finalists emerged from the bevy of Platinum Award winners that had been put forward for Best of Show: 2001 Smith-Madrone Chardonnay and 2003 Vionta Albarino.

The collective wisdom of the 12 wine journalists judging the competition was equally divided. These two dissimilar wines finished in a tie with six votes apiece, a fair and just outcome on the merits of the wines.

What struck me (I am founding director of the competition) was the trend the outcome seemed to confirm. Both winning white wines could easily be described as balanced, nuanced and subtle.

The Smith-Madrone Chardonnay is not your typical Napa Valley butterball. The mountain vineyards at Smith-Madrone – it's actually Spring Mountain, and the vineyards are high above the valley floor in St. Helena – produce a more delicately fruited wine, a chardonnay with mineral notes and a real sense of place.

The Vionta Albarino possesses the steely minerality of Spain's Rias Baixas, a foreboding region for wine grapes near the holy city of Santiago de Compostela.

Albarino is a wine little known to any but aficionados, produced in small quantities and prized for its paradoxical personality, which marries bracing acidity with a richness that would seem impossible to achieve in such a wet and cold land.
Consider it remarkable that two white wines that emphasize subtlety over power could rise to the top of an international competition being judged by a demanding group of critics.

Not that more powerful wines shouldn't get their due – in fact, the rich 2002 Geyser Peak Reserve Chardonnay and 2002 Wild Horse Viognier advanced to the Platinum level and made a run at the top prize – but it's encouraging to see that finesse once again has a place at the table.

Complete results of the Critics Challenge are on the Web at www.criticschallenge.com.