Charbono - California’s least known “native” son
Zinfandel gets all the headlines - big scores, entire sections in wine shops, cleverly named tasting groups, and on and on. Even Petit Sirah has had its share of the spotlight with publications like the Pet Report and P.S., I love you. And them there’s poor little Charbono. No love. Sniff, sniff…
So let’s get to know Charbono. Charbono is a black-skinned variety that is found almost exclusively in Napa Valley, California. At present, there are only about 80 total acres of Charbono in all of California, and the number continues to slowly dwindle. Once upon a time (I’m talking about 1950s - 1960s here) even great, old California houses like Inglenook produced varietal Charbono bottlings. Sadly, now there are only a handful that do so.
The famous French Ampelographer Pierre Galet, upon inspecting some examples of Charbono in situ in Napa, was adamant that Charbono was none other than Dolcetto, one of Piedmont’s staple varieties. When the actual DNA profiling was completed, Mssr. Galet was proven to be incorrect. As it turns out, Charbono is identical with a nearly extinct Savoie (Alpine France) variety called Corbeau. Showing some measure of (erroneous) consistency, Galet had also believed that Corbeau was also identical with Dolcetto. The “Charbono” that grows in Piedmont, which is likely even rarer than “true” Charbono, has been proven to be another variety entirely, but one that was/is often cultivated side by side with actual Dolcetto vines, and with which it is often nearly indistinguishable - a fact that surely contributed to all of this intervarietal confusion…
In the glass, Charbono presents the drinker with a deep, saturated, purply wine. Charbono is most often said to possess aromas of blueberries and balck raspberries, violet and lilac, and brown spices, especially clove. Structurally, Charbono usually displays a good acid/tannin balance, though both elements are fairly elevated even if present in equal measure. The wines tend to be fairly dense texturally with flavors of new leather, tobacco, cocoa, and black currant. Charbono pairs well with flavorful, hearty foods like ragu’ sauces over egg pastas, grilled lamb chops, black beans, as well as dishes the contain mushrooms or olives.
Below is a link to the two Charbono wines we currently stock. As always, if you pick up one or both, please post your tasting notes here!
TOM CIOCCO
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Here are a couple more fun facts about Charbono (shar-BOH-noh).
Corbeau is also known as Charbonneau and Douce Noire.
I don’t know if Carole Meredith’s DNA analysis has confirmed this, but Charbono has been thought to be the same as Argentina’s Bonarda – not to be confused with the many Italian grapes by the same name, which are not the same variety.
A quick Google search revealed a few high profile producers of Charbono. They include Turley, Villa Helena, Bonny Doon, Duxoup, and Coturri.
Here’s an interesting quote from an intowine.com interview with Sally Ottoson of Pacific Star Winery, who has been called, “the Queen of Charbono” by the L.A. Times: “People always ask me to describe the grape’s characteristics, but that’s a difficult thing to do because it doesn’t have a distinct flavor profile like other grapes. So I like to say, it’s like an old woman who puts perfume in the same spot every day and it kind of sinks into her skin and you get this essence that evokes memories.”
Comment by Kent Benson, CSW — July 7, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Tom,
Visited Quixote this summer and they highly reccomended the Summers Charbono. As Summers already was a planned stop we were more excited. I would put charbono up as one of the best summer reds and a great segway for some finicky white wine drinkers to the red side of things. I’m betting the case I bought from them on it
Comment by Chris — July 10, 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher feature the Summers Charbono in their Wall Street Journal column today. Here’s their review:
Summers Winery Charbono 2005 (Villa Andriana Vineyard, Napa Valley). $31.00. We’ve been fans of Summers’ Charbono since we first tasted it at the winery a few years ago. It’s like an old friend. It has a beautiful deep red-purple color and tastes of ripe, red berries with a surprising vitality from good acidity. It reminds us of a very drinkable Italian red. There are just about 80 acres of Charbono in California. Jim Summers, the co-owner, says that in 1996 he saw an advertisement for the winery in The Wall Street Journal and “purposely bought the wine property because it had Charbono on it. I was fascinated with it. But it was the Rodney Dangerfield of wine for the first couple or three years.” In those first years his primary buyers were the members of the Charbono Society at Inglenook. Now Summers has to limit purchases at the winery to two bottles per customer. The winery distributes the 1,400 to 2,000 cases it makes in 20 states. “Sometimes I joke that we’re the Ernest Gallo of Charbono,” Mr. Summers says, because he says no other California winery makes that much. In fact, Mr. Summers said he always wondered how many wineries produced Charbono, so a few years ago they all got together and there were 15, producing a total of around 4,000 cases. “We love the wine,” he says. “It’s a big part of who we are.”
Comment by Kent Benson, CSW — July 21, 2007 @ 12:21 am
Love the Summers Charbonno 2002-my first experience with it -it is awesome!!!!Found it in San Antonio, Texas-The somelier @ one our fine Central stores recommended it-The colour is amazing!!!
Comment by mark — July 28, 2007 @ 11:39 pm