Chardonnay

  • Aromas and flavors : apple, linden, almond, lemons, peaches, tropical fruit, fig, mineral, vanilla (from oak aging) and buttery (from malolactic fermentation)
  • Low to medium acidity and dry
  • AKA: Chablis, White Burgundy, Pouilly-Fuisse, Meursault, Montrachet, Anjou (Loire), Saumur (In Australia sometimes misnamed “pinot chardonnay”)
  • Most famous grape-variety throughout the world
  • Name is borrowed from a village of the region of Macon (Burgundy)
  • In the Chablis region of France(northern most section of Burgundy), it is the only grape permitted and it renders a “crisp, flinty” wine with lime and tropica fruits (and no oak)
  • In the Meursault appellation (in Cote de Beaune, Burgundy), chardonnay takes on a lush, ripe, “fleshy”, “buttery” quality and ususally placed on oakChardonnay Stone Marker
  • One of the main varieties used Champagne, as well as other sparkling wines.
  • In The Champagne region, Chardonnay vinified on its own is called “Blanc de Blanc”
  • Chardonnay are among the best white wines, thick and delicate, traditionally dry
  • Depending on origin some of them can be aged for several years
  • Chardonnay grows in most wine producing countries throughout the world
  • Oak commonly takes over Chardonnay if the wine is fermented or aged in new barrels or for too long in seasoned ones
  • Winemakers like it so much because it is the “blank slate” of white wines
  • Chardonnay readily absorbs the influences of both vinification technique and appellation of origin
  • Different wine making techniques also produce wide variances in the Chardonnay flavor profile ( barrel fermentation, proportion of new to old cooperage, lees stirring, and partial, complete, or prevention of malolactic fermentation)