LCBO Food and Drink Holiday 2016

Rich, fruity Chardonnay loves saffron’s earthy perfume

Paul Hobbs Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2014 VINTAGES 119073, $64.95

Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay 2014 VINTAGES 45583, $94.95 Shafer may be best known for its Napa Valley red wines, but this terrific Chardonnay shows what the father-and-son teamcan do with white fruit grown on their 68-acre Carneros property just north of breezy San Francisco Bay. Fermenting 25 percent of the juice in steel keeps plenty of fresh fruiti- ness, while not allowing malolactic fermentation maintains the zingy acidity that cool Carneros nights offer. A wine of enormous concentration and length, it’s chockablock with fruit—“melon, honeysuckle, apricot, pineapple and citrus zest,” according to the winemaker—and just a hint of flinty minerality. Those flavours build many bridges into the dish, fastening on to the lemon, the butter and the saffron in the recipe. Mean- while the wine’s lovely, bright acidity balances the richness of the “paella” and the parsley butter. It’s hard to think of anyone who knows Russian River Chardonnay better than Paul Hobbs. He blends fruit from various carefully chosen local estates, picking at night when the fruit is cool, fer- menting the juice in barrels. The new wine ages for a year in French oak, on its yeasty lees, and is finally bottled unfiltered and unfined. The results are spectacular. This is a rich, floral, fruity Char- donnay with more than 14 percent alcohol. It has all the weight and body it needs to stand up to the dense texture of halibut and the buttery richness of the vegetable “paella.” Aromatically, there is masses going on, with hints of citrus finding the lemon zest in the recipe, a note of brioche mirror- ing the butter and floral, fruity flavours that work well with the rooty perfume of the celeriac.

132  FOOD & DRI NK HOLIDAY 2016