In the last 50 years or so, plantings in Australia and North America have given this grape a very high profile.
Thanks in part to the wine's enormous popularity, producers in every corner of the globe are jumping on the chardonnay bandwagon.
Chardonnay can taste from light, crisp, and tart to full-bodied, opulent, and ripe.
One common denominator in the winemaking process is malolactic fermentation, the conversion of tart malic acid to soft lactic acid.
Many winemakers employ this technique to achieve this popular buttery characteristic.
Ripening also allows the various flavour components of the grape to develop.
Burgundy and Champagne
Most experts agree that the ultimate expression of chardonnay's potential is in Burgundy, France, where the region, not grape type, gives the wine its name.
White Burgundy ranges from a light, crisp Mácon, to a steely, direct Chablis, to a nutty Meursault, and on to a very rich, layered, and complex Montrachet.
In Champagne, blanc de blancs champagne, also made with chardonnay, is breathtaking in its purity,, delicacy, and creaminess.
Worldwide Styles
More a type of wine than a vine variety (with some definite exceptions), chardonnay is made in every imaginable style.
Here are a few examples of how chardonnay manifests itself in different wine regions of the world:
Adelaide Hills:
High natural acidity combined with ripe fruit make a typical, comparatively ripe Australian wine with long aging potential.
Carneros:
The mists of the San Francisco Bay moderate what would otherwise be a hot climate, making for well-structured wines that still show some generosity of fruit.
Chablis:
The steely table wines of this cool region have a firm acidity that allows them to develop into some of the longest-living whites available.
Champagne:
In this cool region of France, the grape makes acidic and delicate base wine for the greatest sparkling wines of the world.
Hunter Valley:
One of the warmest regions of Australia produces big chardonnays with a typical 'peaches-and-cream' character.
Languedoc:
In southern France, the chardonnay grape produces melon and butter characters that reflect Burgundy without its great structural balance and intensity.
Marlborough:
In this dry region of New Zealand, chardonnay produces wines that may echo some of the Australian fruit styles, but with an extra vein of acidity.
Meursault:
In the Cote d'Or, the heartland of Burgundy, grape produces buttery, nutty wines with a streak of acidity.
Napa Valley:
Just 30 kms north of Carneros, California, chardonnay becomes full, ripe, and generous, but without the tautness of the wines from farther south.
Tasting Notes
- citrus
- apple
- pear
- tropical
- buttery
- creamy
- nutty
- steely
- minerally
- oaky
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2 comments:
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