When you sample a lot of wine, it's easy to get jaded. Another day, another oaky chardonnay. Another day, another stripped-down cabernet. Another day, another superb Pennsylvania pinot grigio.
Say what?
There are still surprises in the world of wine, and one of them came to me recently from southeastern Pennsylvania's Chaddsford Winery, an innovative and cheerful experiment in the historic Brandywine Valley south of Philadelphia.
The surprise was the 1998 Chaddsford Pinot Grigio, a distinguished European varietal - known as pinot gris in France - that is seldom seen planted on the East Coast.
It was, flat-out, the best American wine made from this grape that I have ever encountered. Full-bodied, complex and stylish, it outclassed any Italian pinot grigio I could recall. In style and substance, it bore a closer resemblance to a well-made pinot gris from Alsace, which puts it in distinguished company.
Take that wine and add in a few other pleasant surprises from Chaddsford and it was more than enough to inspire a two-hour drive from Baltimore to see whether the pinot grigio was some kind of fluke.
It's not.
A comprehensive tasting of Chaddsford's wines, those in bottle as well as those in barrels and tanks, found that there's a lot to get excited about at the 18-year-old winery.
Not only was the 1998 pinot grigio not a one-time wonder, the winery founded by Eric and Lee Miller is producing excellent wines from other varietals - as familiar as chardonnay and as exotic as dolcetto. It is doing some exciting work with pinot noir, the great red grape of Burgundy. And it is producing a red of world-class quality from chambourcin, a humble French-American hybrid grape instead of a purebred European vinifera.
Like most East Coast wineries, Chaddsford depends heavily on tasting-room sales to novice or sweet-toothed wine drinkers. It sells its share of tourist wines, and it has a few expensive clunkers in its line. (Avoid the $24 sparkling wine.)
The overall quality is impressive, however. The pinot grigio is an especially welcome, oak-free alternative to chardonnay.
The mostly sold-out 1998 pinot grigio has been succeeded by the 1999, an exceptionally full-bodied white from a drought year. Its ripeness shows in high alcohol levels that give it an impression of sweetness even though it's been fermented to full dryness. The 1999 isn't quite as complex and elegant as the 1998, but it offers intense peach, pear, honey, nut and spice flavors. It's a white wine that could stand up to a turkey dinner this holiday season.
The three vintages of Chaddsford pinot grigio I've tasted all show a texture typical of a better Alsace pinot gris. "It's got that mouth-coating character when you reach that certain degree of ripeness," says Eric Miller. "It just gets a little oily in the mouth and creates that sweet impression."
Miller believes the winery's 2000 pinot grigio will be the best to date. Based on a sample from the tank, I'd say it's at least as flavorful and graceful as the 1999.
It was disappointing to learn that Chaddsford plans to abandon its experiment with dolcetto, a fruity red varietal from Italy's Piedmont, after the 1999 vintage. The 1998 and 1999 versions were both very good wines for early consumption, without the bitterness that afflicts many Italian versions. Miller hasn't been satisfied with its consistency, so he plans to replace it in his line with barbera, another Piedmont varietal that is an oddity on the East Coast. Miller's adventurous streak also shows in his plan to plant syrah, the great red grape of the northern Rhone, on a prime slope in his vineyard.
"New varieties to me are very exciting, but we are not going to be making large quantities. My wife has got me on a short leash," Miller says. "Eighty percent of our work has got to be pretty practical in nature."
Chaddsford's "practical" wines are reasonably exciting, too.
Pennsylvania pinot noir is one of Miller's most ambitious projects. The 1999, the current vintage, is a bit hard and disappointing because of drought conditions and a winery error, but the 1998 showed that the winery can indeed produce a top-notch pinot noir comparable to a fine Beaune. The 2000 pinot noir, tasted from barrel, probably won't reach its level but should be more enjoyable than the 1999.
Chaddsford was one of the first East Coast wineries to develop a consistent track record of producing high-quality chardonnays, especially its bottlings from the Stargazer's and Philip Roth vineyards. The winery no longer receives fruit from Stargazer's, but the Roth vineyard continues to produce one of Eastern America's most elegant and distinctive wines.
The 1999, which sells for about $30, more than merits the price. It is an enormously complex chardonnay with layers of complex flavors, including tropical fruit, vanilla, toast, pear and even red fruits such as cherry and raspberry. Miller said that's part of the vineyard's distinctive signature.
