We paid $7.25 for a 1978 Château Meyney in 1981. That same year, we spent $12.99 – the equivalent of about $45 in today’s dollars – to buy a 1979 Ste. Chapelle Chardonnay from Idaho. Why in the world did we do that? Because we’d never seen a wine from Idaho before.
And you know what? We rated it “Delicious.” We compared it to Chardonnay from California’s Chateau St. Jean and David Bruce, very high praise for us back then. We still remember that wine.
At this time of year, wine writers, including us, passionately discuss their most exciting bottles of the year. In many cases, they are well-aged gems. In some others, they’re expensive cult wines or rare Burgundies. We do love reading about them. In our case, we’d say among our most memorable wines this year was Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand because it gave us new insight into what New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc can be, by turning down the volume; Darioush Viognier from Napa because exceptional Viognier can be hard to find from anywhere and we never expected it from Napa; and Rhys Chardonnay from the Santa Cruz Mountains because this fulfills the promise of great California Chardonnay.
One big reason these wines are so memorable for us is that they were unexpected. Pour us a glass of Château Latour and we will surely enjoy it and discuss its splendors forever, but it won’t be a total surprise.
On the other hand, a bottle we will remember for a long time was a Grüner Veltliner from Idaho. For SEO headline purposes in a wine column, honestly, we don’t know whether “Idaho” or “Grüner” is less effective, but stay with us here. Grüner Veltliner is a spicy, mineral-driven, lively wine that is a specialty of Austria. We’ve loved it for many years (there’s a fine Indian restaurant on the East Side where we always order it). More recently, however, we’ve found that too many Grüners, even from Austria and even when supposedly dry, tend toward sweet and lack the vitality we expect, leaving them kind of clumsy.
In the years since our Ste. Chapelle Chardonnay, the Idaho wine industry has grown. Ste. Chapelle Winery, founded in 1974 and the oldest, has changed ownership over the years and remains the state’s biggest winery. According to the Idaho Wine Commission, there are three American Viticultural Areas and six wine regions in Idaho that are home to 65 wineries producing 258,000 cases from 1,300 acres.
Quite a few states these days are doing a good job of promoting their wine industries. (From our perspective, Virginia is a leader in that.) The Idaho commission recently contacted us, for the first time, and asked if we’d like a small sample of their wines. We were impressed with the first we opened, Chicken Dinner White Wine from Snake River Valley, made by Huston Vineyards. It’s a blend of Riesling, Muscat Blanc and Viognier and simply delightful, especially at $16. We’re going to quote the back label here in full because…well, you’ll see:
“Legend has it that an aggravated housewife employed her culinary skills to persuade the Governor to help her get her road oiled. She enlisted her husband to paint the sign that led the Governor to the house where Chicken was the main course but much more was on the table! Before the apple pie was served, a deal was struck and the name stuck and Chicken Dinner Road was oiled.”
In any event, we also very much enjoyed an estate-grown Montepulciano from Snake River Winery, which tasted more authentic than quite a few Montepulcianos we’ve had recently from Italy. These days, far too many of those seem industrial and a bit sweet. This one had rich fruit and a nice underlay of minerals, nice astringency and a hint of persimmon. It’s $19.
And then that Grüner. It was 2023, estate grown, from HAT Ranch Winery in the Snake River Valley and it’s $19. Our notes: “Best Grüner we’ve had in a while. Fresh, clean and zippy, with white pepper and just a slight hint of honey underneath to added to its character. Absolutely lovely and good to drink this minute. Perfect with light dishes, but also good on its own. Earthy molasses on the finish but it’s so light that it’s more of a hint than a taste.”
The back label of the Grüner reads: “Our great-grandparents created the Hat Ranch homestead as a farm and ranch in 1902 [in Wyoming]. We have re-established the family’s Hat Ranch name for our wines and vineyard in the Snake River Valley, the new frontier in wine. We honor the pioneering spirit of our heritage by delivering wines of distinction.”
Interestingly, when we looked for the original Ste. Chapelle label in our book from 1981, it was on a page with wines from “other American areas,” including Benmarl from New York, Boordy from Maryland, Bucks Country from Pennsylvania – and Knudsen Erath Pinot Noir from a region called Willamette Valley in Oregon.
In any case, in the coming year, whenever you have a chance to support a small winery, anywhere in the world, grab it.
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher conceived and wrote The Wall Street Journal's wine column, "Tastings," from 1998 to 2010. Dorothy and John have been tasting and studying wine since 1973. In 2020, the University of California at Davis added their papers to the Warren Winiarski Wine Writers Collection in its library, which also includes the work of Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. Dottie has had a distinguished career in journalism as a reporter, editor, columnist and editorial writer at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and at The Journal. John was Page One Editor of The Journal, City Editor of The Miami Herald and a senior editor at Bloomberg News. They are well-known from their books and many television appearances, especially on Martha Stewart's show, and as the creators of the annual, international "Open That Bottle Night" celebration of wine and friendship. The first bottle they shared was André Cold Duck. They have two daughters.
