Mon Trajet

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The California Wine Region Winning Over Chardonnay Skeptics

Sta. Rita Hills offers a vivid take on the varietal.

Most winemakers in Sta. Rita Hills are making their Chardonnay with the idea of avoiding what John Schwartz, CEO of Grands Joueurs Vignerons, calls “oaky, vanilla, buttery, homogenous-style Chardonnay.” Schwartz makes a Chard here called Mon Trajet, which is French for “my journey” and sounds an awful lot like a Burgundian appellation that he seeks to emulate. Attempting to avoid the over-oaked style that plagues Chardonnay worldwide, Schwartz and his team ferment and age in concrete eggs and neutral oak barrels to “accentuate the true varietal elements without over imposing wood components,” and then “flash” in new Burgundian oak for three months to add texture and mid-palate length. He has succeeded in creating a wine with bold acidity and rich mouthfeel alongside flavors of apple, melon, and lemon zest with a strong backbone of minerality.

Here's my story:

When I was 16, my parents sent me to France to study the beautiful culture of its food and wine. Their good friend Jean-Claude Vrinat owned the 3-star Michelin Taillevant in Paris, and he arranged a stage (internship) for me in the kitchen cutting haricots verts (string beans) to a specific measurement all day long. I didn’t mind the monotony of the task, since it was inevitably followed by the opportunity to eat well and taste wines a helluva lot sooner than would have been the case back home. I was exposed to many beautiful French wines, but I was most fascinated by the white Burgundies. The Chardonnay grape quickly became my passion.

Fast forward 6 years...In the late 80's I worked for a large California winery, overseeing its global distribution network. I learned that 80% of the Chardonnay grown in the state was produced from its own Wente clone. As I became increasingly discerning about the varietal, I seldom discovered a California Chardonnay that met my palate preference for Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Grand Cru Chablis-style wines. I was struck by the exceptional minerality of these wines, the purity of the fruit when not overshadowed by excessive oak aging. I tried every highly rated California Chardonnay and simply could not come to terms with them. There was an uncanny homogeneous nature to most of them. I became obsessed with the idea of producing a Burgundian-style Chardonnay in California that a) would set a new standard for this grape variety, b) could age gracefully and c) I would enjoy drinking!