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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2007 > January > 23 > Entry
Kendall-Jackson post triggers ‘a tsunami’
If you read blogs the same way I do, you don’t go back and read posts that are several days old, because you’ve been there, done that.
But my post of last last week entitled A Kendall-Jackson wine-tasting experience took on a whole new life — and I do mean a whole new life — on Monday when it was featured and linked to on WineBusiness.com, a newsy and influential web site read by many folks in the California wine industry.
That link, in turn, triggered a second wave of feedback and comments on the entry about the subtle (or, to some palates, not-so-subtle) changes in the style and taste of America’s best-selling chardonnay.
The number of comments has reached 24 as of this writing, some speculating whether K-J was doing things like adding sugar to the juice before fermenting or tossing in as much as 24 percent non-chardonnay grapes. Such speculation obviously caught the attention of Kendall-Jackson’s vice president for communications, George Rose, whose email quotes were included in the original post. Here are the first two sentences of his reaction, contained in the 22nd comment the entry generated, in which he flatly denies any such manipulation to K-J’s huge-selling flagship white:
This has been quite an interesting experience, or shall I say tsunami. I had no idea your tasting of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnays in Ohio would reverberate all the way back to California and around the country. It’s obviously a testament to the power of the Internet and your newspaper’s commitment to a syndicated wine blog column.
I’ve written before about how mind-boggling it is to see how the Internet has shrunk the world, especially for a li’l ol’ wine blogger geek here in flyover country of Dayton, Ohio.
After yesterday, consider my mind further boggled.
It’s you, the readers of Uncorked (which is not syndicated, by the way. The ‘net is my “syndicate,” in a sense — but it doesn’t pay cash.) who make this community a vibrant and lively and entertaining place.
So let’s raise a glass — of K-J chard, if you’ve got a bottle handy — to that vibrant community. And click here to read the entire brouhaha (you may need to top off your glass first).
Thanks for reading, and cheers!
Mark Fisher
Comments
By Steve in a bottle
January 31, 2007 1:10 AM | Link to this
David, are you saying that only fruits and nuts grow well in California’s “freakish climate,” not Chardonnay? Please extrapolate for us as I was unaware that California’s climate was uniform.By MJ
January 25, 2007 3:54 PM | Link to this
Dear Winemaker David, You are right. I should spend some time discussing exciting wines from Ohio. Speaking of Chardonnay, have you had the newest release from Sand Hill Vineyard in Sandusky? Word on the street is that it would give Burgundy a run for the money. :)By David
January 24, 2007 9:25 PM | Link to this
MJ, as much as you would like to cow me from expressing my opinions (i.e. my thinking pursuits of wines under $10 is being cheap), you have only proved that too many Americans only know low-brow, industrial, bland wines merely because they recognize a brand name. In reality, the bigger the brand name, the farther removed the grower is from the wine in the bottle. You’d find a dozen chardonnays in Ohio that are more exciting than Kendall-Jackson’s. Why don’t you discuss some of those. Because like many people you’re obsessed with brands and unable to recognize, for example, that California’s freakish climate makes chardonnays high in sugar and low in acid (not the best recipe for high quality chardonnay). But you’ve been convinced otherwise by California media and promotions.By TJ
January 24, 2007 4:38 PM | Link to this
Being from CA, and having been up and down the west coast region of the US, there’s a boom of microbrewries out here, some well known (Sierra Nevada) and others not so well known. DO I prefer beer’s from these places versus Bud, Coors and or Miller?! YES!!! Do I always get to drink them?! NO! Some of my favorite beers are made by people I consider a friend but I have to travel 4 or 5 hours to get to the brewry to buy some growlers and then reserve to come home! So, do I drink KJ…it’s been YEARS. Would I buy it to drink-sure who’s got it on sale. Why? I know what to expect and the cost is good. Do many people like the watered-down p**s we call “beer” in this country. YES, a couple million other people continually buy it a drink it. Even when there’s local beer being made fresh and is WAY better than the mass produced domestic. To each their own.By MJ
January 24, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this
Hey, that post above me is from our friend David, the Ohio winemaker (remember the Ohio cheapskate discussion?). I am not sure how long David has been in the business of wine and winemaking, but I guess I will go ahead and re-post my previously held assertion that EVERYONE in the wine business who sells premium wines, owes a debt to Kendall Jackson and their Chardonnay. I have been out there long enough to remember when the demand for KJ Chard was so big that almost no restaurant dared not have it by the glass. Why? Because people liked it and asked for it! That wasn’t a “California wine media” creation. It was a wine and a style and a consistency that people enjoyed. Kendall Jackson Vintners Reserve Chardonnay got people acclimated to the varietal and used to paying more for a glass of wine. I don’t represent KJ nor do I know anyone who currently works for the company, but based on the previous blog comments, it is obvious to me that they are held in high esteem by their peers and colleagues. So, they are changing their style. Fine by me. I hope it works for them. Good luck KJ and thanks for your work in educating consumers about varietals and growing regions in CA. Well done.By david
January 24, 2007 3:33 AM | Link to this
I think it’s sad that all this discussion is being generated about Kendall Jackson chardonnay, the Olive Garden of wines. With all the distinctive wine regions, varietals, and committed smaller producers out there, getting excited discussing an industrial, bland wine is beyond me. It just shows the power of the California wine media that a bland wine from one of the most boring wine regions in the world comes to deserve dissection.