California dreaming: the best of the state’s wines

California’s wines are expensive, but choose carefully and you can still find a bottle that packs a real flavour punch

The Path Chardonnay, California, USA 2022 (from £10.99, brayvalleywines.co.uk; kwoff.co.uk; darcywine.co.uk) The last time I wrote about wine from the United States after a certain person won a certain election back in November, I complained about the lack of decent quality wines available from the country at prices under £20. A couple of weeks before said reality star/criminal took up residence in The White House TV room for another four years earlier this week, I attended a tasting of about 140 wines from California hosted by The California Wine Institute and UK trade magazine The Wine Merchant – a tasting that confirmed that the US does indeed have a higher average starting point for interesting wine, but that it nonetheless can offer good value in that £10 to £20 bracket if you look hard enough. The Path Chardonnay is a case in point, a sunny, ample, peachy fruit-filled, but fresh and balanced example of a white grape variety that is one of California’s biggest strengths.

Haarmeyer Zinfandel, Lodi, California, USA 2022 (£19, allywines.com) For properly thrilling chardonnay that matches the best of the variety’s homeland in Burgundy or other modern classic chardonnay regions such as Victoria in Australia, there is something of a premium to pay – but no more (considerably less in fact) than you would expect if you were upgrading from a simple, regional Burgundy (labelled Bourgogne blanc) to a swanky Meursault or Montrachet. Certainly, in the context of the world’s very best chardonnays, you could build a case for saying the savoury, chiselled, luminously bright and energetic Arnot-Roberts Watson Ranch Chardonnay, Napa Valley 2022 is good value for its £48.50 price tag at robersonwine.com. The grape variety that I think generally offers the best dollar-for-dollar value in California, however, is the state’s very own zinfandel, which can come in a wide variety of winemaking styles including Haarmeyer’s light and juicy red, which has something of Beaujolais in its light-and-juicy feel and the easy, chillable drinkability of its tangy red berry flavours.

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