Elevage Blanc:
A new white meritage-STYLE wine, offering the best of Napa Valley

For years at Chimney Rock we have crafted Elevage, a wine that has earned outstanding reviews from critics, with scores of 90 and above for six years running. It has become an icon among Bordeaux blends from Napa Valley. With its success we began to wonder: Could we produce a white wine matching it in stature? For example; something like Chateau Haut-Brion and Haut-Brion Blanc. Why shouldn’t we aspire to that?

As Chimney Rock’s owner I first put the challenge to winemaker Doug Fletcher in August 2001, when we had dinner at my home. Fletcher headed to the cellar and picked out a 1986 Château Haut-Brion for dinner. Upon seeing the bottle, I recalled this was the opportunity to bring up the subject of how much I liked Haut-Brion Blanc, another trip to the cellar and we shared a bottle of 1985 Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc as well. I then asked Fletcher, "Can you make an outstanding long-lived white Bordeaux-style wine, as a companion to Chimney Rock Elevage?” Fletcher responded, “Yes, I think I can.” That day, the vision of a new Chimney Rock varietal was born.

Several years of experimentation and tastings ensued, and in 2006, Fletcher and his Chimney Rock team presented me with the white Bordeaux blend. Upon tasting it, I immediately responded, "Bottle it." And, 300 cases of the 2004 Elevage Blanc was born — a wine that follows in the footsteps of Elevage and expects to take its place in company with the finest white wines of Bordeaux. The inaugural 2004 vintage received numerous accolades from serious wine writers, including being named a “Star Wine of 2006” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Decanter magazine’s Norm Roby called it “a stunning, unusual white wine that just might be the start of something new.” The Robb Report noted that the “time spent in French oak barrels lends a creamy texture and a hint of vanilla spice to this Sauvignon Blanc-based blend, which reveals its base varietal with a ripe pear nose and crisp citrus flavors.”

Chimney Rock increased production of the 2005 Elevage Blanc to 700 cases, the blend was again made from Sauvignon Blanc and the related, but rarely used variety Sauvignon Gris, which adds a character rarely seen in white blends. Elevage Blanc is elegant, with subtle aromas of passion fruit, a sensual mouth feel and a lingering, exhilarating aftertaste with the anticipation that it can withstand the test of time, not 4 or 5 years but 15 or 20 years or longer. Of course the accuracy of this will shortly be tested. At the present moment the inaugural vintage of 2004 is fresh and lively age having gracefully improved the sensuality of the wine. In the 2008 vintage we produced 3,000 cases. In 2011 there is a plan to do a vertical tasting of the 6 vintages 2004 - 2009 proof of the age-ability will be easily apparent at that time.