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Chardonnay

Stylistically speaking, Chardonnay can be a light, apple-y, flinty wine or a full-bodied white marked by caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, and nuts. Often, more subtle flavors prevail from Old World producers while more prominent flavors appear in New World wines.

As a grape, Chardonnay ripens to high sugar levels. This equates to high alcohol wines. Additionally, Chardonnay is naturally high in extract. In combination, alcohol and extract deliver a wine with weight, body and grip.

For the grower, Chardonnay requires careful attention come harvest; for as the grape ripens, acid levels fall quite rapidly. Harvest, therefore, becomes a balancing act between the parameters of sugar, acid and flavor. Low acid Chardonnay is flabby and lifeless. Acidification will bring back the wine’s piquancy, but wines with natural acidity are longer-lived... and as Chardonnay is a wine that can spend time in a bottle developing increasingly complex aromas and flavors, picking the fruit at optimal ripeness and maturity is paramount.

In the Cellar

Chardonnay is fairly neutral in varietal flavor and is marked by simple green apple and mineral notes. For this reason, many winemakers have subjected the juice to a number of winemaking practices from malo-lactic fermentation and barrel fermentation, to sur lie aging and lees stirring in order to create more assertive flavors.

Old World winemakers, having introduced barrel fermentation, malo-lactic fermentation, and sur lie aging into the Chardonnay winemaking regime, tend to perform these techniques with subtlety and understatement. They know that, with time, what originally starts out as a fairly neutral, lean, crisp, flinty white wine will develop into something quite intense, nutty, and minerally with honey-butter flavors. In this approach, the wine is allowed time in the bottle to develop.

Others opt to impose flavor with substantial barrel aging or full-blown malo-lactic fermentations so as to have a high-impact wine upon release. Both wine styles have their fans.

Around the World

Chardonnay is still the primary white grape in Burgundy today, and it is one of the three principal grapes grown in the Champagne region. Other bastions of Chardonnay include Australia and the USA, although most growing regions world over are now growing this grape.

Chardonnay is a relative newcomer to South Africa, and the grape has made a few inroads on Portuguese soil. Germany and Austria both grow Chardonnay, although it is often referred to as Klevner in Germany and Feinburgunder or Morillon in Austria.

Despite New Zealand’s worldwide reputation for Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay is that nation’s most widely planted variety. Chile, Argentina, Italy, and Spain have acreage devoted to Chardonnay as well.