Scott: Hi, I am Scott and welcome to Beach Street News. We are Scott and Kelly, we have the WSET level two Award in wines and we’ve also both taken the introductory sommelier exam with the Court of Sommeliers-Americas. Today we’re gonna talk about Savoy and Sons Chardonnay, A California Chardonnay, from Murrieta, California, just outside of here.
We’re here in Huntington Beach, and this is from the nearby Temecula – Murrieta area. Okay. Typical of a French grape in a hot climate, I’m going to expect this wine to be a little heavier and sweeter than most of your Northern California Chardonnays or Washington Chardonnays. So that’s where we’re gonna start off with that.
We’ll see if I’m right and we’ll see what they deliver. You ready?
Kelly: Yeah.
Scott: Alright. So what do you know about the wine? What are we supposed to be looking for here? Are we gonna bias ourselves or do we just go without it?
Kelly: So I’m gonna start with, this is a very small family owned winery located in the Marietta Hills.
Um, so it, they have a very small production. This is their Chardonnay. They have a cabernet and a red blend. Um, if this goes well, I will be anxious to try their red blend as well.
Scott: One of the things that I personally think. Is that in the hotter areas like Temecula or Murrieta, the lower Italian varieties tend to do a lot better.
So they can take the heat. They don’t get so sweet, they don’t get so heavy, they don’t get that spice but we’ll take a look. We’ll see what, uh, Savoy and Sons are able to do with their chardonnay out of Marietta, and we’ll go from there.
Kelly: Yeah, I do know that this is aged in oak, so French Oak. So that should be, should give it a little more buttery flavor.
Scott: Yep. Little malolactic fermentation. So, um, a couple of things about Chardonnay in general, because it is a French, Northern French, uh, varietal. Generally speaking, uh, chais is the area that you would see a lot of French Chardonnays grown in and a lot of it into champagne. So, uh, the color of this though, this is not what I expected.
It’s very light. This is very pale yellow, which for a California chardonnay is not something you would expect. Um, that’s a good thing. I think that it means they didn’t let the grapes over ripen. They picked them at a good time and very, uh, light edge to this. So very young wine. So this is a 22, I’m gonna guess.
Yeah, it’s a 22.
Kelly: 22
Scott: There we go. So less than three years old. Uh, very light color for a Chardonnay, California, especially, especially a Southern California Chardonnay. I almost wish we had a, uh, another one, like an Everly or somewhere of the northern to compare the color. ’cause this is really a nice color.
Kelly: No, this is, this is a light straw color.
Scott: Mm-hmm. Very nice.
Hmm. So right off the top. Very typical Chardonnay notes. Um, a little bit of green, um, not quite as appley and bitter or acidic as you would expect a chardonnay to be, like a, uh, Sauvignon Blanc or something like that. So, so far it’s got a very light nose, which, uh, again, with a light color sort of goes together and I would expect the same in the taste.
So, uh, one of the things with Chardonnays though, is. They can be what some will call a difficult wine. And one of the things that’s true about wine is the flavor will change based on what you’ve put on your palate before it, the four parts of your tongue, right? Sweet, sour, salty. Um, so, and, and umami. So those things, how we eat these may change the wine slightly, but we’re gonna go with it dry first.
And uh, we should have had some water up here. A little bit of a mistake on our part, but.
Kelly: I think I’m smelling some of the apple, maybe some pear.
Scott: It’s very nice. Apple and pear. Um, very, uh, light white floral too.
Okay. This one has a little bit of a bite on the mid tongue. This is different for a California Chardonnay. Uh, and that’s probably from the French oak. A little bit of, uh, tingling around very light burn. So it means very, the alcohol is very well balanced. The acids are very well balanced, your teeth aren’t drying out.
Um, very clean, drinkable summer wine. This is a very clean light.
Yeah, it’s not as complex as a lot of the French Chablis or even the Northern Californians, but as you go through a second. You can really bring out, uh, the deeper apple and the deeper greens. So
The floral sort of gets washed out by the extra greens, which is really nice.
And because of its lightness, this will be a nice summer, um, warm weather wine, which ironically chardonnays should not grow well in warm weather. So they’ve done a nice job with this.
Kelly: Yeah. I’m very impressed.
Yeah, they really have. So, um. The only thing holding it back from going well north of 90 points for me is it’s not very complex.
It’s a, it is a very clean, uh, solid example of a chardonnay without being over complicated. It’s not over buttery. It doesn’t have that it x brand of milkiness or that we see in Northern California. A lot better
that I expected.
Exactly. That’s the other piece, if it’s French oak, there should be a little bit more spice.
So that’s why I’m gonna put this at, right at the 90 point range because we don’t, I’m not getting the spice that I would expect out of a French oak barrel. So it didn’t sit long enough in the barrel maybe to give it that again. It doesn’t hurt it, it just doesn’t give it that complexity that you might get out of a good chardonnay, especially in a warmer climate like Marietta.
It is opening up really nicely.
Kelly: It is, and that’s the other thing about, uh, white, especially something like this, because it’s, I do think I had it chilled. A little too cold.
Scott: Yeah, so, so we’re letting it open up.
So it’s actually turning out very nicely as it starts to warm up and as it does open up, the flavors do change.
So since we’re talking about that, simple rules. If you’ve got a bottle of red on a warm day, throw it in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes and then pull it out to drink it. White is the opposite. If it’s in the refrigerator, which is a little too cold for what it should be because it’s gonna be in the forties, take it out for 15 to 20 minutes and then serve it up. You can see this bottle sweating, which means we had it just a little too cold and chilly, but because it is a very nice warm day to day up in the eighties and here in the studio, it’s getting up there because of all these lights and the cameras and everything.
Hmm, the piece of cheese I had actually brings out a lot. The, that’s it flavors and the salt, the salt in here is, is helping with the acid, the, and, and very, it, it doesn’t have a lot of acid, but it does lighten it up just a little bit and it gives it a little bit more of a polished finish. So it’s really, really is opening up nicely.
This is a really well done wine. I congratulate these guys.
Kelly: Hmm. yes
Scott: Well there you have it. Savoy and Sons. We’re gonna give it 90. Do you have a disagreement or a better score? What would you like to say?
Kelly: I am very impressed. Yeah. I actually do want to try their red blend they do and their Cabernet,
Scott: yep. So there you go. Savoy and Sons Wines, they have a website. Where do we go?
BTW We don’t sell wine, we just look at wine here at Beach Street News.
Oh, they do have a website. Savoyandsonswinery.com. Look at that.
Savoy and Sons winery. Give it a try. Uh, I do recommend the wine. It is, uh, very nice California wine. And if you get out to Savoy and Sons and you can get into their tasting room.
Kelly: I don’t think they have a tasting room yet.
Oh, they’re very young. This is, you got a young winery,
Scott: Well, there you go. So a new discovery. Get yourself something to throw in the cellar so you can say you were there when, ah you knew them when.
Yeah. There you go. All right. From Beach Street News, it’s Scott and Kelly. Have a great day.