WineLovers Discussion Group

Tried this at TheGoldenBear last Monday:
1. Berthoud ChasselasDore PaganiRanch/SonomaCnty (12%; www.BerthoudWinery.com; 100 yr old vines; 84 cs) Sonoma 2010: Pale/near colorless; light earthy/stony/citric/grapefruity bit perfumed talc rather simple/vapid nose; rather tart/citric/grapefruity light/watery slight stony flavor; short tangy/grapefruity/citric slight stony finish; a rather thin/eviscerated/vapid white that even Pagani OV can't rescue. $16.00 (WoP)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. This is the wnry of Swiss immigrant ClaudeBerthoud. Winemaker is son, Mike, who worked for DickArrowood at Ch.St.Jean and Arrowood.
I was attracted to buy this wine because of the PaganiRanch designation. ChasselasDore, or Golden Chasselas, is the workhorse grape Switzerland. I've had a few that I thought were pretty decent..but none that knocked my socks off...nothing ever very profound. But old-vine Pagani Chasselas?? That might have some potential.
This wine was not really a bad wine. It just seemed on the vapid/watery/eviscerated side and didn't show much in the way of interesting character. It lacked the strong stony minerality of the better Chasselas I've had from Switzerland.
Tom

Hi Tom:

Thank you for the interesting note. This is the first note that I've ever seen on "real" Chasselas from California, as opposed to Golden "Chasselas", aka Palomino.

I do agree that the better Swiss Chasselas can be interesting, although at least one that I've had was from the pink-skinned version of the grape. Was also impressed by Serge Daugueneau's Pouilly-sur-Loire from 120 or so year old vines.

Chasselas Dore grows well in our area--shame that the wineries who work with it tend to make sweetish wines for old ladies out of it.

Jenise wrote:Chasselas Dore grows well in our area--shame that the wineries who work with it tend to make sweetish wines for old ladies out of it.

Interesting - I was not previously aware of Chasselas in Washington. Thanks for the info, Jenise.

By sweet wines for old ladies, I'm guessing that you mean local imitations of Harvey's Bristol Cream? I've tried some attempts at cream "Sherry" on the East Coast - nothing convincing, of course.

Andrew Bair wrote:

Jenise wrote:Chasselas Dore grows well in our area--shame that the wineries who work with it tend to make sweetish wines for old ladies out of it.

Interesting - I was not previously aware of Chasselas in Washington. Thanks for the info, Jenise.

By sweet wines for old ladies, I'm guessing that you mean local imitations of Harvey's Bristol Cream? I've tried some attempts at cream "Sherry" on the East Coast - nothing convincing, of course.

Andrew, you won't see them in the market place, they're not produced on Washington's east side where the cabernets etc are; rather, it's grown here on the cooler west side for the same reasons it does well in Switzerland. And not so much Harvey's but a sweeter reisling style wine. Not heavy, just sweet enough that those of us who like dry white wine find it wrong-headed.