When Washington State winemakers are asked to describe how their wines compare to those of their more famous neighbor two states south, they frequently point out that they fall somewhere between California and Europe stylistically. There is that generous ripe-fruit quality one expects in the a New World wine but, because Washington generally has a cooler climate than California, the wines are able to retain a greater degree of acidity for a more elegant, food-friendly, European style.

Or, if I was going to be catty with these gross generalizations, they show neither the jammy, cola-wine characteristics of California nor the thin, under-ripe qualities of inferior European wine.

Washington’s winemakers, while acknowledging the influence of these two esteemed regions on their nascent industry, are also keen to carve out their own distinct identity, and a fine example of this effort is the latest Five Star Nick’s Wine of the Week, the Abeja Chardonnay, Washington State 2008 ($36).

The winery

Very obvious a New World chardonnay in that it has that luscious, mouth-filling ripe-fruit quality, but it’s no California oak-bomb. Rather it’s all balance and harmony, redolent of peaches and pears tinged with lemon and burnished with a seductive veneer of gravelly minerality.

As such, it’s an eminently food-friendly chard combining the best of the New World with the best of the Old.

“Food-friendly is exactly what I am trying to go for,” winemaker John Abbot explained to me when I queried him on his purpose. “I wasn’t trying to say, ‘This is the closest we can get to Meursault in Washington.’ It was trying to make a style of wine that had a pretty acidity that went with Pacific Northwest-style foods.”

“When I had the opportunity to form the partnership on Abeja,” Abbot continues, “I went down that road of saying I want to make classic chardonnay that has the stamp of Washington….but could compete with anything worldwide.”

And compete the wines of Abeja certainly do.

+++++

To find Abeja near you try www.wine-searcher.com.

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