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Chardonnay
Chardonnay is a grape that polarises opinions. Most adore it, and look to the sublime wines of Burgundy to discover Chardonnays with intense aromas of lemon, lime, angelica and liquorice aromas with a creamy, smooth texture. Others view it with distain, perhaps because they have only encountered, blousey, over-blown examples and view it as dull and boring.
These over-oaked ‘blousey’ styles were championed by the New World (California, Australia) about 10 years ago, but are increasingly rare these days as the demand for balanced and unoaked styles increases.
A few aromas and flavours that you may find in Chardonnay
Fruit characters: Lemon, lime, melon, banana (when fermentation is hot) and honey (if the grapes are very ripe); from malolactic fermentation you find butter and toast; and from oak barrels vanilla, liquorice, cloves and star anise.
Where is it grown and why does it taste so different?
Burgundy
Chardonnay’s homeland is Burgundy, where vines have been grown on a few select sites for over a thousand years. Burgundy’s limestone-based soils, varying aspects and microclimates produce wines ranging from basic up to stratospherically beautiful wines with sublime texture, flavours and aromas. The great wine producers in Burgundy offer great examples of judicious oak barrel usage. Used properly, oak barrels can impart structure and flavours that enhance Chardonnay’s naturally generous character. The highly sought-after wines from Domaine Leflaive (a biodynamic wine producer) and Domaine Lafon are superb examples of top-quality Chardonnay fruit married with balancing oak structure and subtle (not overwhelming) flavours of vanilla and spice. Burgundy ranges in style from rich and golden in the warmer south through to the steely austerity of Chablis in the north. The appellations are all very different, and the quality varies markedly according to vintage – one of the reasons why wine merchants and wine lovers find this region so alluring.
Champagne
Chardonnay is a key ingredient in Champagne, where it is sometimes bottled alone, but more often paired with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It’s prized here for its aromatic qualities and backbone of acidity thanks to the Champagne region’s northerly climate.
The New World
Under such an all-encompassing title like the ‘New World’ (South Africa, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina) Chardonnay obviously varies enormously. It’s very important in California and Oregon, where it produces rich, ripe styles and is capable of producing subtle, well-structured wines in the cooler areas that can compete with Burgundy in terms of style and elegance. Australia, likewise, can produce some shockers (over-ripe, over oak-chipped styles) but in areas like the Margaret River, Eden Valley, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills the wines can be pure, generous, well-balanced and utterly delicious.
Chardonnay is a winemaker’s blank canvas
Chardonnay is an easy grape to grow and is incredibly malleable – in the vineyard and in the winery - so it’s the perfect grape upon which a winemaker can display their winemaking preferences and styles. Chardonnay is capable of both great and terrible things depending on where it is grown and who is making the wine. The winemaker can choose i) whether to let the wine go through malolactic fermentation (where the harder-tasting malic acid also found in apples changes to the softer lactic acid found in milk and imparts buttery flavours) ii) have lees contact (which creates a creamy texture and imparts toasty aromas) and iii) whether to ferment in oak barrels. Or indeed, none of the above, which will create a totally different wine. Chardonnay is even capable of being picked late to create botrytised, sweet wines. It is also a great blending partner with other grape varieties – the most common partner is Semillon.
Never write off Chardonnay as boring – there’s far too much diversity and blossoming of styles to ignore it.