One of the California wine industry's elder statesmen wine makers is a man who has gotten only scant recognition for what he has contributed to California's most popular white wine.

Miljenko (Mike) Grgich, who turned 85 on April 1, is the man who made the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the famed Paris Tasting of 1976.

You'd think that would have given him lifelong immortality, but the native of Croatia still makes a style of Chardonnay that isn't as popular as a newer, more "obvious" style. So although he is widely praised for his accomplishment of 33 years ago, in taking a barely known source of fruit and crafting a widely praised Chardonnay, the acclaim isn't as broad as you might think.

Mike has always adhered to a lifelong philosophy to make Chardonnay that works with food. And the vast majority of the Chardonnays made in California today are made in a radically different manner.

Most wine makers have chosen to make a broader, fleshier, fuller-bodied style of Chardonnay, one that some people praise with terms like "soft" and "plush" and "rich." Grgich finds such wines rather distasteful.

"Chardonnay should go with food," said Mike the other day in an interview at his Napa Valley winery. And he said that the more popular style of wine doesn't go with meals.

His view is that the standard way Chardonnays are made today by most others is to put the wine through a second fermentation that changes its bright malic acid, with its apple-y aroma, into lactic acid, which has a more buttery smell.

"If you go through malolactic fermentation," said Grgich, "you make a dead wine. I have to raise my voice — these people are destroying the beautiful malic acid and malic acid was made by God and they are replacing it with acid made by man.

"When you drink non-malolactic Chardonnay, you are drinking something alive."

This is the 50th year of Grgich's arrival in the United States, and over the years, before his work at Chateau Montelena, Mike worked at numerous California wineries including Beaulieu (with California's great wine maker, Andre Tchelistcheff) and at Robert Mondavi, with California's greatest wine marketer and visionary.

His outspoken nature about what he sees as the best way to make Chardonnay isn't a new tune. He's been speaking out for decades, but various marketing forces have left his voice rather faint. Part of the reason for that is that an entire generation has been educated to think that higher-alcohol, lower-acid Chardonnays are best.

That they do not go particularly well with food is, apparently, beside the point.

Yet Grgich isn't alone in his thinking. Indeed, some of the finest Chardonnays in California also are made without any malolactic fermentation (abbreviated ML). These include such handsome food-oriented Chardonnays as Far Niente, Chateau Montelena, Mayacamas, Robert Sinskey, Iron Horse, Stony Hill and Forman.

And recently there have been a number of wineries whose "regular" Chardonnay is made by using a ML regime, but who are testing a new style of wine — non-ML. One such is wine maker Jon Emmerich at Silverado Vineyards with a new Chardonnay called Vineburg. The 2005 vintage of this spectacular wine ($30) clearly is a Chardonnay that Mike Grgich would love, crisp and food-friendly.

Wine lovers who appreciate the non-ML style of Chardonnay know that they are best served with food, and they know that they do not serve very well as walking-around aperitif wines.

Moreover, unlike the complete-ML style of wines that don't always age very well, most non-ML Chardonnays do superbly with time in the cellar.

How long do they age? That depends on numerous factors, but Mike Grgich says he still has a full case of the 1972 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, that winery's first vintage, in his cellar.

That wine was made 36 years ago.

Wine of the Week: Wine of the week: 2007 Eos Chardonnay, Paso Robles ($13.50) — Bright tropical fruit, nectarine and honeydew melon aromas and a rich fruit entry and good acidity. A stylish and reasonably priced Chardonnay for pairing with seafood dishes in light cream sauces.

Dan Berger resides in Sonoma County, Calif. Berger publishes a weekly newsletter on wine and can be reached at danberger@VintageExperiences.com. To find out more about Dan Berger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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