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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2007 > January > 18 > Entry
A Kendall-Jackson wine tasting experience
When my just-retired executive editor, Jeff Bruce, sent me an e-mail a few weeks back suggesting he thought his favorite wine tasted less appealing than it used to, and asking whether it was being made differently, I sat up and took notice — and not just because he was my boss’ boss’ boss.
Rather, it was because Jeff’s favorite wine happens to be one of America’s favorite wines: Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve, this country’s best-selling chardonnay. And if there’s been a sudden shift in winemaking style in this wine, well … that would be news.
So I went to the source and asked. And that triggered quite a circuitous adventure culminating in a smackdown taste-test that produced some rather surprising results. It didn’t answer all our questions — in fact, it raised new ones — but the experience certainly offered a glimpse behind the curtain of how such a wildly popular wine is made — and how it has evolved.
In this case, “the source,” is George Rose, vice president of communications and chief spokesman for Kendall-Jackson, to whom I directed the initial email outlining my editor’s observations and essentially asking, “What’s up with that?” Here was his reply:
“I’m happy to report that there have been no significant changes in the style of Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. It’s being made by the same winemaker for the past 14 years: Randy Ullom. Though the wine is ‘slightly drier’ than in years past, it still features the tropical fruit flavor that has made it America’s best-selling premium chardonnay.”
Hmm. “No significant changes,” yet, “slightly drier.” What’s that mean? A couple of go-rounds later, Rose addressed that question:
“We are also making Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay with a slightly lower alcohol level than in years past, which does affect the mouthfeel. Higher alcohols can make a wine seem ‘lush.’ One of the raps years ago was that Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay was a sweet fruit bomb. It is now more ‘refined’ with a hint of residual sugar.”
Hmm again. So no sudden significant change in style, but a potentially very significant change in style that has occurred over time?
Rose wondered whether we were encountering some damaged wines that had been adversely affected in transport by heat or cold or some other factor, so he offered to send sample bottles directly from the winery to taste alongside those bottles purchased from the shelves of Dayton-area wine shops and grocers. And he offered to throw in a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay — which costs a few dollars more than the Vintner Reserve —in for comparative purposes. Bruce took the K-J vice president up on his offer, and a taste test was arranged.
To say things didn’t go as planned is an understatement. Jeff and I and five other taste-testers sampled the wines “blind” without knowing which was which, and most of us thought the store-bought wines tasted fresher than the bottles sent directly from the winery. And Jeff’s eureka moment came when he tasted the K-J Grand Reserve wine, proclaiming that, “This is what K-J Vintner Reserve is supposed to taste like. It has all the original buttery, oaky flavors that made K-J so popular in the first place.”
I asked Rose to help me interpret these unexpected results, and my editor’s impressions.
“I think you may have inadvertently discovered why wine can be such a mysterious and confounding beverage. … Like a piano concerto with full orchestra, a bottle of wine will never be exactly the same experience at every opening. At Kendall-Jackson, we make every effort to produce a consistent wine from vintage to vintage. And yet, each bottle can provide a unique experience with each tasting. Go figure, your editor liked the more expensive Grand Reserve.”
Later, he added:
“Your editor’s sense memory may be playing tricks on him. The Grand Reserve chardonnay is indeed pulled from the very best lots of Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. … The big difference in Vintner’s Reserve from the current and past versions of Vintner’s Reserve chardonnays is that the 2005 Vintner’s Reserve is slightly sweet and the 2005 Grand Reserve is bone dry. In other words, there is no residual sugar in the Grand Reserve you just tasted. This may be what is tricking your editor’s memory and giving an impression of a ‘thin’ wine.”
Let’s give Bruce, whose query launched this little wine adventure, the last word. “Spinning wine is an acceptable part of the tasting process. Spinning the wine’s story is another thing altogether. It is clear through this email exchange that K-J has, indeed, changed how it makes its chardonnay. Perhaps some prefer it; I do not. On the other hand, the Grand Reserve, to my palate, tastes like the K-J of old. I like it that way.”
So THERE you have … a Kendall-Jackson tasting experience.
What to make of this?
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
Label image courtesy of www.KJ.com.
Comments
By Dan Thompson
January 23, 2007 2:05 AM | Link to this
As a member of the wine press (and a wine geek who can’t sleep in Atlanta) this thread amazes me with various speculation and comments about K.J. Having known George Rose for years and actually tasting wines with him and winemaker Randy Ullom, I can tell you these two gentlemen are as genuine and authentic as it gets in the wine business (or any business, for that matter). It’s what’s in the bottle that counts with me and I’ve rarely been disappointed by anything that Kendall Jackson puts their name on. P.S. George is right about the Highlands Estates wines…delicious and well worth the extra $$. Mark, thanks for the blog and I’ve added “Uncorked” to my watchlist of wine columns. Keep up the great work. DTBy Stephen Reiss
January 22, 2007 9:07 PM | Link to this
It has long been fashionable to belittle the enormous contribution of Kendall-Jackson. By producing a quality Chardonnay at a decent price, KJ helped to usher in a new era of varietal wine drinkers. Now they are doing the same with vineyard and region specific wines. They are teaching the consumer that place matters. My favorite region, Santa Maria, is in particular well represented by the Cambria wines and the above mentioned Highland Estates ?Camelot Highlands? Chardonnay. For those of you that have not looked at what KJ is doing now a days, you may be in for a shock. For those of us that have long supported Jess Jackson, let me just say, keep up the great work. Kudos to Mr. Fisher for the fine piece, and for attracting such a lively debate.By George Rose
January 22, 2007 7:34 PM | Link to this
Mark: 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. So without “spinning,” I would like to take the opportunity to let the folks who are following the stream of comments regarding your column on Kendall-Jackson know that we do not add sugar to our wine. We use Mother nature to get our grapes ripe. More importantly, it’s against the law in California. Also, all of our Chardonnay wines are 100% pure grape variety. That’s not a Federal or State law, it’s Jess Jackson’s law. In other words, there is no Muscat, Gewurztraminer or Riesling blended in our Chardonnay. So now that your boss’ boss has discovered Grand Reserve Chardonnay, I’ve got another for you to taste from Kendall-Jackson. It is the 2005 Kendall-Jackson Highland Estates “Camelot Highlands” Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Bench in Santa Barbara County. We only make a few thousand cases of this single-vineyard, Estate-grown Chardonnay. It sells for $25 and is available in Ohio and direct from the winery at kj.com. I’d love to get your tasting panel feedback on this wine. I guarantee that no one will confuse this wine for Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. Thanks for allowing the opportunity to be a part of your dialogue. Keep up the blogging! Cheers, George Rose VP of Communications Kendall-Jackson Please feel free to add to the comments section on your blog.By George Parkinson
January 22, 2007 6:38 PM | Link to this
Great bantor.It is interesting to me that KJ draws out so much controversy? There is a reason Kendall-Jackson is the #1 Chard in America. As a former KJ employee I can tell you to stop with Dan Kleck’s response and be satisfied with that answer. Then go out and buy a bottle or six. Since the beginning the chase for quality has been the focus at Kendall-Jackson.While most other wineries are selling their vineyards, Jess is committed to buying quality vineyard land and improving clonal selection and care in the land. One only has to taste the juice in any affiliated Jackson Estate bottle to see this,( LaCrema,Cambria,Hartford)As for tasting the same wine side by side…Mark, I might suggest you try this again with the top competitors of Kendal-Jackson; then ask why no one else is making the same effort to bring to market a better wine for the American consumer at the quantity,price,and quality level that Jess Jackson is. The only answer I know is profit to Wallstreet.By Sue
January 22, 2007 5:37 PM | Link to this
Not an expert by any means, but I know what I like, and I like KJ Chardonnay. That said, I would say the grapes have a major part to play in the final product! And harvests vary greatly from year to year, depending on weather etc. Not to mention a winery as large as KJ buys grapes from many different sources and then combines them. Can’t ever replicate a wine exactly!By Dan Kleck
January 22, 2007 5:33 PM | Link to this
As a former K-J Chardonnay winemaker, I can say that Mr. Rose’s comments were correct. There has been a gradual, barely perceptible shift over the past few years in the K-J Chard styling that reflects consumer preferences, as well as the goals of the winery to deliver more estate-grown fruit, vs. purchased. This change has been very successful, thanks to the careful management of their vast estate vineyard resources (and I note my friend, Bob Johnson, who commented above, is a former K-J vineyard manager, responsible for a sizeable portion of their high-quality estate Chardonnay grape production for many years, concurs), as well as consistent fruit sourcing. It ain’t easy making several million cases of Chardonnay taste good, and consistently so, year after year after year. I suspect that any similarity between the K-J Grand Reserve and the latest version of K-J’s Vintner’s Reserve may be due to variations in the fruit quality from vintage-to-vintage, rather than some creative move on the part of K-J’s winemaking team. Both Mark Theis, their white winemaker, and Randy Ullom, K-J’s winemaster have honed their craft well over the past 12-15 years. Jess Jackson should be proud to have such a successful team that can produce wines as consistently good as Kendall-Jackson Chardonnays always are. And no, they don’t blend in 25% “other” white varietals, as “snipet” suggested above. While that may have been Jed Steele’s method, it has not been the case in recent years, as every effort was made to produce as closely to 100% varietal as possible, during my tenure with K-J. The wine is as close to 100% Chardonnay as any in California. Dan KleckBy wine-o
January 22, 2007 3:16 PM | Link to this
Good comments all. 1st there are indeed tons of tools at the winemakers disposal and it is a good thing that winemaking styles change over the years. If not, we would all still be drinking Aligote from Corton Charlemagne. But I think the bigger picture here is this: KJ is trying to manufacture a wine that year in and out tastes the same with only minor changes to the style as they judge the current trends. The wine should NOT taste the same as when you had it ten years ago, particularly if the grapes are coming from different vineyards than they used to. Many winemakers will tell you that you have to take what the vineyard gives you, not build it in the winery. Otherwise we should just forget about vintages altogether. I for one am glad that a ‘01 Brunello and an ‘00 Brunello from the same producer may taste entirely different. Consistentcy in style and quality is one thing, but do not sacrifice individuality because of it. Otherwise we would all be reading Parker instead of Mark’s blog.By snipet
January 22, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this
If mymemory serves me correctly, the previous wine maker was Jed Steele who came out and announced that the Chardonnay is made up of 76 percent chard, the rest is blended amounts of muscat, rielsing and SB.There seems to be a variance in what is added based on crop cultivation year in and year out. Obvioulsy they do attempt to matriculate the wine to have the same bouqet and flavor every year. Nothing illegal about it, just the way KJ does business.By null
January 22, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
Having worked with the company, this is typical K-J spin. There indeed has been a change in the way the product has been made. Not good, not bad, but not the same. To their credit, they have resurrected some distressed properties in winedom.By Tim
January 22, 2007 12:33 PM | Link to this
Do you think they might want all of those Vintners Reserve drinkers to move up to the more expensive Grand Reserve? Especially if it now taste like the Vintners Reserve used to.By JoeB
January 22, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this
I believe its illegal to add sugar to wine in some parts of CA, so seriously doubt there is chaptalization in these Chardonnay. KJ did change the source of the Vintners Chard, they now own the grapes and don’t purchase them. I guess its for better control. Also Vintners is now aged 6 months in barrel with malolactic fermentation which smooths out the wine as well. KJ also makes high end Chard’s called Highland Estates which is really amazing stuff.By Peter
January 22, 2007 11:10 AM | Link to this
I think the explanation might be quite simple. They can’t be adding sugar (chapitalization) that is illegal in California, but they can be “ameliorating” the wine, which means adding WATER. It is perfectly legal and being done more and more as winerys try to bring lower alcohol wines to market. It lowers the alchol, it can then be fermented dry, it provides more wine to bottle with the same number of grapes and voille’ it reduces the depth of fruit and quality of taste. Just a guess, but probably not far off. PBy Paul A
January 22, 2007 10:53 AM | Link to this
Just a couple of comments on how the wine’s style can vary. First, vintages do matter. I know from personal experience that 2004 was an overripe year for many chardonnay producers. 2005 was a larger, but more controlled harvest, producing a leaner, more elegant wine style. Second, winemakers today have many tools which did not exist 20 years ago. Alcohol and residual sugar can be easily adjusted. Preserved grape juice or concentrate can be used to sweeten wines. RO or vacum distillation can be used to remove excess alcohol. Both processes are perfectly valid tools in any winemaker’s toolbox.By david@wine-flair.com
January 22, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
Being from Piqua, I am thrilled there’s a good wine writer in Dayton. Sure wasn’t when I was growing up and reading the paper. Anyway, it sounds as though there ARE some “significant” changes in the Chardonnay - at least significant for K-J, which manipulates to get a very particular, sweet-ish taste tuned for the palates of an identifiable mass audience. And before anyone says that “every” winemaker does that, no they don’t. Ironically, most winemakers are looking for a taste that THEY respond to.By Bob Johnson
January 20, 2007 2:20 PM | Link to this
“Spinning wine is an acceptable part of the tasting process. Spinning the wine?s story is another thing altogether. It is clear through this email exchange that K-J has, indeed, changed how it makes its chardonnay.” I’m not sure why this is such a revelation. Winemakers/wineries change the way they make wine all the time… vintage to vintage… depending on the fruit sources, quality of the harvest, etc. K-J is known for trying to keep the flavor of its specific bottlings consistent from vintage to vintage, and to do that, there will always be varying methods employed. I didn’t see any spinning by Mr. Rose, whatsoever. What I did see here was someone drawing an insignificant conclusion as part of trying to verify a pre-conceived notion. Which is part of human nature; we all want to be “right.” I’m just not sure the conclusion drawn here has any real value. But the whole thing WAS fun to read.By Don
January 19, 2007 2:10 PM | Link to this
Several years ago at a wine festival, we visited one of KJs wineries and tasted a number of their wines including several Chards. While touring the winery, someone asked if the wines were the same year after year or were somehow different. With a quick look around, our guide explained that several studies showed that American’s tastes in Chard were changing, so KJ was making slow changes in sugar and alcohol to maintain their market share but respond to the changing palate of America.By Mark Fisher
January 19, 2007 2:06 PM | Link to this
In answer to the earlier question: The bottles “rested” for 10 days before we held the taste test — long enough, I would think, to overcome any bottle shock.By Paul
January 19, 2007 1:45 PM | Link to this
In response to Denise’s question, one way that scenario can occur would be if the current crop had a lower sugar level to begin with — either because they were picked earlier and less ripe, or because rain prior to the harvest diluting the sugar levels.By Erin
January 19, 2007 1:44 PM | Link to this
Denise, it could be that the harvest Brix (sugar) levels were lower that year than others, leaving less sugar to be converted into alcohol. It may not have anything to do with adding sugar in the winery, though, that would be an interesting question. Any signs of chaptalization Mark?By Paul
January 19, 2007 1:37 PM | Link to this
Wine-o’s comment that travel could have adversely affected the wines sent direct from the winery would make sense — except that Jeff liked the Grand Reserve (also direct from the winery) best!!! Perhaps Jeff’s tastes are maturing (or at least, changing). However, I find it interesting that the original statements from the winery indicate the current KJ Vinter’s Reserve is “slightly drier”, yet after your tasting, when the winery described the difference between Vinter’s Reserve and the Grand Reserve, the winery indicated the Vinter’s Reserve was “slightly sweet” while the Grand Reserve was “bone dry”. If the difference is dryness, and Jeff preferred the Grand Reserve, you would expect Jeff would also prefer the less sweet current Vinter’s Reserve to the prior slightly sweeter Vinter’s Reserve.By denise
January 19, 2007 12:56 PM | Link to this
I was just wondering how the new vintage can be made “with a slightly lower alcohol level than in years past” yet “the wine is ?slightly drier? than in years past.” Fermenting the grapes’ sugar into alcohol is how you make it drier, but that raises the alcohol level. Maybe KJ adds sugar to their juice and now they’re adding less.By John
January 19, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this
Dittos to “wine-o’s” comments. Until last weekend I had not tasted a KJ in at least 10 years (just moved onto other things). Therein my interest to keep on reading. Good article and good timing! JohnBy mort hochstein
January 19, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this
the first time I tasted kj back in the early eighties, i was so impressed i called jesse jackson immediately and had a nice conversation with him. of course i realized later that there was a bit more sugar there than we wine writers swear by. But I would not fault kj or george rose. if you want a really classy chardonnay from the kj family, try hartford or archipaelago, however it is spelled. and incidentally, george rose is one of the good guys and has been for a quarter century. mortBy wine-o
January 19, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this
Wow. A conversation about KJ Chardonnay that I am actually interested in? Mark, you are indeed a most captivating storyteller. Seriously. How long after the bottles arrived did you sample them? Wine travelling over long distances often experiences what is commonly referred to as “bottle shock,” in which case the long trip, changes in temperatures, light, vibration on the back of a truck, etc. can make a wine seem out of phase and disjointed. I have had many wines that just came off of the truck that were noticeably not as good as when that same wine was sampled just a month or so later. Or maybe it just isn’t as good as it used to be.