Chardonnay pronounced (shar-doh-NAY), is the world’s most famed white-wine grape and also among the most frequently planted. Granted, the most highly respected expressions of the variety are those from California and Burgundy; and acknowledging that countless high-quality Chardonnays are made in Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America.
The world’s most popular varietal, Chardonnay, has been considered the greatest white wine, although Reisling enthusiasts will dispute this.
Describing the flavors of Chardonnay is not easy. While most Chardonnay wines possess high aromatic complexity, this is often because of winemaking techniques (especially using oak) as opposed to the variety’s inherent qualities. Malolactic fermentation gives identifying buttery aromas. Fermentation or maturation in oak barrels leads notes of smoke, vanilla, and hints of spices such as clove and cinnamon. Due to this high degree of winemaker participation, Chardonnay is known as the “winemaker’s wine.”
For example, wherever Chardonnay is grown, it infuses the flavors of oak like a sponge. Out of all the white wines, Chardonnay embraces oak-barrelling treatment the best; oak-influenced fragrances and flavors of toastiness and at times a bit smoky dominate Chardonnay’s fruit flavors. It is the oak barrels that give many Chardonnays their buttery quality and their clove, vanilla, and cinnamon, on the palate. Chardonnay without oak, or that utilize old barrels devoid of flavor compounds hold their lightness, pushing forward fruity flavors rather than spices and toasty aromatics.
The variety known to some as being a neutral flavor is the reason for most of the fruity flavors found in Chardonnay wines. These range from the tropical (banana, melon, pineapple, and guava) to stone fruits (peach, nectarine, and apricot), citrus, and apples.
Climate plays an integral part in dictating the fruit flavors that a Chardonnay may have. In warm areas such as California, Chile, and a lot of Australia tend to provide more tropical designs. Moderate zones such as southern Burgundy or northern New Zealand produce wines present from stone fruit notes. Chardonnay vineyards (those in Chablis, Champagne, and Germany) have tasting notes of green apple.
Some may say this wine from a particular region has “terroir.” Terroir is a French word meaning “a sense of place.” In wine tasting, the term means that the wine tastes like it should from the territory where the grapes were grown and the wine taste like where it is from should taste. Take, for example, avocadoes and tomatoes grown in the United States did not taste the same as the avocadoes and tomatoes when I traveled to the Caribbean. Terroir, at its core, is a belief that the land and climate where the grapes are grown impart unique characteristics into the grape that could not be imparted by any other region of the world. Saying this avocado represents the terroir of let’s say Jamaica WI when biting into a fresh avocado, is just a swankier way of saying, this avocado tastes like an avocado grown in Jamaica.
Cosmetic descriptors such as chalk, wet stone, and crushed seashells also make their way to Chardonnay tasting notes. These are sometimes credited to the soil. The most famously minerally Chardonnay wines are those of Chablis, among those very few wine areas to concentrate on a mostly unoaked style of Chardonnay.
Although most famous for its nonetheless, dry wines, Chardonnay is utilized to make an impressively diverse assortment of wine styles. The variety is set to use in sparkling wines throughout the world (most famously Champagne) when it is typically paired with Pinot Noir. It may also be seen in botrytized and late-harvest wines; Canada even generates sweet Chardonnay ice wines.
Chardonnay is very popular with wine manufacturers, not least since it is a dependable market of excited consumers. The variety produces comparatively significant yields and can be contributed to the wine of decent quality with comparative ease. In bad vintages, deficiencies could be covered up with oak flavors, decreasing the fiscal effect of a terrible harvest.
From the vineyard, Chardonnay introduces a couple of viticultural challenges, but not one that cannot be solved with age-old tactics or a bit of help from tech. (Were this not true, the variety will surely not be as powerful as it is.) In sweltering climates, Chardonnay grapes tend to reduce their natural acidity, leading to horizontal, overblown wines. This may be partially corrected with the easy addition of acidity, or by harvesting ancient and compensating for lack of taste with oak and malolactic fermentation. Vignerons in colder climates have very some difficulties with the variety, as the blossoms bud and blossom early in the summer, which makes them vulnerable to spring frosts. Vignerons at Burgundy have customarily used braziers between the vine rows, not only for heat, but they also produce frost-preventing air currents.
California wineries particularly noted for Chardonnay include Chalone, Chateau Montelena, Far Niente La Cremaand Shafer. French Chardonnay is named for the area where it grows rather than the grape itself. Frequently the specific vineyard will be indicated on the label along with the official quality designation official such as premier cru, ler cru(first growth), or grand cru(great growth).
CHANCES ARE YOU ARE ALREADY A CHARDONNAY ENTHUSIAST
Although many of us are most comfortable with Chardonnay as white wine, the title also applies to the grape varietal the style that is produced from California to Austria, Chardonnay is still one of the most planted varietals of the world and also the number one most planted in America.
Along with Chardonnay wine, Chardonnay grapes contribute brightness into quite a few white styles such as white Burgundies such as Chablis (most white wine from Burgundy are, in actuality, 100% chardonnay), and many sparkling wines, such as Italy’s Franciacorta and the iconic French bubbly, Champagne.
The Chardonnay grape constitutes a substantial part of the champagne market. Lawfully Champagne can only be made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, arbane, and petit merrier varietals, even. However, the first three are undoubtedly the most frequent –together with the category-leading Blanc style typically composed predominately, and sometimes wholly, from chardonnay grapes.
OAKED VS UNOAKED
In regards to the wine, in the United States, consider just as Chardonnay there are two different styles: these aged in oak barrels, known only as “oaked,” and also the ones who are not, or “unoaked.”
Oaked chardonnays, such as other oak-aged sips such as bourbon, select up taste compounds that naturally occur in the timber as they age. The most notable of those compounds is vanillin, which, as its name implies, imparts vanilla-esque flavors. However, wines may also pick up other profiles such as mocha and toffee from oak barrel aging too, all which will offer oaked chardonnays a milder, toastier palate with notes of toffee, baked fruit, and hot spices.
Unoaked chardonnays, on the other hand, maybe obsolete in many different methods, such as in tanks made from stainless steel or concrete to prevent imparting flavors from the aging vessel and to stop exposure to the atmosphere so that Chardonnay’s natural acidity is maintained. Unoaked Chardonnay’s convey the brighter side of wine, with more acid-forward palettes and flavor profiles of citrus, fresh tropical fruits, and white florals.
Another element in the taste profiles of chardonnays is malolactic fermentation, a chemical process that converts the malic acid (tart green berry zing) from the wine into lactic acid (the same type found in many dairy products, which generates a more productive, creamier feeling on the tongue). In contrast, many red wines go through malolactic fermentation (also known as MLF), comparatively not many white wines do. Oaked Chardonnays are an exception to this ground rule, and today you will find that most of these oaked chardonnays provide a smooth body and creamy taste.
THE GROWTH OF BUTTERY CHARDONNAY
Chardonnay might have gotten its beginning centuries past in the vineyards of Burgundy and Champagne, although its flexibility was well-regarded throughout, it took some time for chardonnay grapes to catch on in the United States.
It was in 1976, in what is called the Judgment of Paris, that American Chardonnay began to catch the spotlight. The event was organized by a British wine store owner in Paris, matched a collection of California wines, against their French counterparts in two blind tasting comparisons judged by several of France’s wine specialists: one of the top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California. The belief was that the French wines would triumph, but in the long run, a Californian wine rated best in each category.
Shortly, California chardonnay started to take hold as the most prominent American white wine, with sufficient chardonnay vines planted in the country to rival the most longtime chardonnay lovers in France. Through the 1980s, producers relied heavily on oaked chardonnays, permeating their foods and bringing forth multitudes of devoted fans. Nevertheless, in the same way, the oak-heavy style arrived, it gradually started to fade out throughout the’90s and ’00s, with most vineyards toning those buttery flavors to get a more dim and nuanced effect.
Later, around 2010, the unoaked style started to gain notoriety among US wine manufacturers, offering much more variety for white wine lovers of America.
Recommendations:
Most Chardonnays can be stored for 2-3 years, depending on your storage unit and the environment. Chardonnays of better quality can be stored for 5-6 years. Try an unoaked Chardonnay with shellfish or a meaty fish like scrod, or better yet, try it with a pork or chicken dish. I like jerk chicken and I like my Chardonnay..sometimes I don’t follow the rules.