Wine of the week: Davis Bynum, 2018 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Gravel Lens River West Vineyard

Did you know that chardonnay is the offspring of pinot noir and an obscure white variety called gouais blanc?

DNA analysis in the 1990s revealed that chardonnay is descended from pinot noir and gouais blanc. Both varieties were widely planted in northeast France during the Middle Ages, but today gouais blanc is nearly extinct.

Chardonnay has long been thought to be a variant of pinot noir and is often misidentified as pinot blanc. Confusing matters further, it has been called white pinot, pinot blanc chardonnay and pinot chardonnay.

Greg Morthole’s compelling version of this offspring is our wine of the week winner — the Davis Bynum, 2018 Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Gravel Lens River West Vineyard, 14.5%, $38. What makes this wine intriguing is its yin-yang balance — it’s rich yet crisp. Buoyed by bright acidity, it has complex tropical flavors and a note of creme brulee.

“Two things make this chardonnay stand out,” Morthole said. “The first thing you notice is its lovely floral tones. But the second thing is beguiling: As you taste it, you immediately sense richness that you’d expect, but a jolt of acidity is hiding in there. And a few seconds into the taste, it runs across your palate, which makes you come back to figure out if it’s a big, rich chardonnay or one with some raciness. The fact is that it’s both.”

The late Davis and Virginia Bynum, who founded the label, sold it to the Klein family in 2007. Tom Klein, the vintner of Rodney Strong Vineyards, produces the Davis Bynum brand at his Healdsburg winery.

Davis Bynum is credited with being a pioneer of Russian River Valley pinot noir. He bought a vineyard in Napa but was prevented from building a winery, so he moved to the Russian River Valley and purchased an old hop kiln on a property on Westside Road. He turned it into a winery just in time for the 1973 harvest and bought some grapes that year to make the very first single-vineyard-designate pinot noir from the Russian River Valley.

Morthole, 50, joined Rodney Strong as lab director in 2005 and was promoted to associate winemaker in 2007. He became winemaker for the Davis Bynum brand in 2010.

Drawn to the world of wine after sipping a glass of Gran Reserva Tempranillo, Morthole sought to make a career of bottling grapes.

“Twenty years ago, my wife, Mary, and I traveled to Spain to visit a friend whose father worked for the International Organization of Vine and Wine in Madrid,” he said. “His dad gave us the bottle. We opened it at the girl & the fig when it was still in Glen Ellen.”

Morthole said he and Bynum had regular lunches where they talked about the wines and a range of topics.

“Davis was always a gentleman, and we grew to have a great relationship,” Morthole said.

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.