“What can I get you?”
“Erm, I’ll have a glass of white wine please. Not Chardonnay though, I can’t stand Chardonnay! Ooh I know, I’ll have a glass of Chablis if you have it?”
This is the age-old joke amongst those of us in the wine trade, a conversation quite often had between bartender and punter, with the bartender trying to stifle a giggle at the stupidity of it all. Because Chablis IS Chardonnay. Chablis is just the name of the region where this wine must be made, while Chardonnay is the grape it must be made from. The key here though is that Chablis is very rarely oaked. When it is, the effect is so elegantly subtle you wouldn’t know it.
The ABC Brigade was founded on the back of the huge wave of cheap, mass-produced Chardonnay coming out of the New World (particularly Australia) back in the 80s-90s. At around £3-5 per bottle, unsurprisingly it became hugely popular very quickly - so much so that Chardonnay became the newly popular name for baby girls born in the late 90s. After years of Hock and Blue Nun, this dry, full-bodied, buttery offering was a welcome relief. Sales went through the roof and winemakers started digging up their less popular vines and replanting them with this little money spinner.
But to produce such cheap wine, these winemakers had to cut corners and find ways of reducing costs in any way possible. One major cost at the winery is that of ageing, particularly with oak, so the introduction of oak chips was inevitable. Oak chips can be placed into the tank of wine either during fermentation or ageing, and they impart intense oak flavour in just a matter of weeks (compared to the years it takes when ageing the wine in oak barrels). But the resulting wine can be so intensely oaky (those butter/vanilla/spice flavours you so associate with Chardonnay) that it overpowers the lovely peach/melon flavours of the juice itself. Having said that, there’s a high chance that all this over-oaking was the perfect way of hiding a multitude of sins in the base wine...
As is often the case with flavours that are so completely OTT, we soon got sick of it and went in search of the most thin and flavourless liquid we could slip down our throats, which we soon found in the shape of cheap, mass-produced Pinot Grigio - now one of the biggest selling white wines in the UK. But declaring oneself part of the ABC Brigade means that you are missing out on one of the World’s most widely planted and versatile grape varieties. What you hate is not Chardonnay but the cheap oak flavours that come from bad wine-making. Chardonnay itself is actually a very subtle, soft wine so it is the influence of soil, climate and winemaking techniques that you are tasting in that glass in front of you.
Chablis
It is believed that this is where Chardonnay was first planted by monks back in the 12th century. Here the use of oak is often rejected as many winemakers believe it smothers the characteristic Chablis flavours that come from the local “terroir” - green apple- like acidity, stony/pebble aromas and gentle notes of honey. Those winemakers that do use oak go for more neutral types which don’t impart those vanilla characteristics but rather soften the wine by gently allowing in oxygen, making it less austere and acidic. This wine is a perfect introduction to the beauty of the Chardonnay grape, and goes perfectly with light fish/shellfish dishes.
White Burgundy
South of Chablis, the dominant grape variety in Burgundy is still Chardonnay but here oak-ageing is more prevalent. However, no corners are cut in this area of the world and, while you’re paying fairly big bucks for your bottle, you know you’re getting a good quality wine here. The winemaker will have invested a lot of money and time into this bottle, so the oak will have been given all the time it needs to integrate into the wine resulting in a softer, more silky smooth sip - perfectly paired with slightly richer fish dishes and white meats.
The area in the north known as the Cote d’Or is famous for some of the most expensive Chardonnays in the world, with a deep concentration of flavours and gentle hazelnut aromas from the oak. Puligny Montrachet shows quite steely, crisp aromas and flavours while Meursault tends to be the most round and buttery.
The area in the south is the Cote Chalonnaise and Maconnais regions. Being rather warmer than the Cote d’Or, the wines produced are fuller-bodied and softer, with Pouilly Fuisse being the most famous and expensive. Look out also for Mercurey , Montagny and Rully.
New World Chardonnay
If you consider yourself part of the ABC crowd, the key here is to look for wines that specifically state on the label that they are “un-oaked” or “un-wooded” - a trend that has come about as a response to the ABC backlash. With these unoaked Chardonnays you will get all the lovely tropical, soft white fruit from the wine without any of the oakiness. Yalumba “Y Series” Unwooded Chardonnay (Barossa Valley, Australia) is a perfect example of this, full of pineapple, peach and quince fruit flavours and grapefruit acidity. Available to purchase from everywine.co.uk and winedirect.co.uk at around £7 per bottle.
Sometimes a Chardonnay may be unoaked but the producer won’t indicate this on the front label. This is where, for once, the tasting note on the back label will be a good indication of whether or not there’s any oak involved. Any indication of “vanilla”, “butter” or “toast”, steer clear if you’re completely anti these oaky flavours. You’ll find that, because the USA is a big producer of oak, most Californian Chardonnays are quite heavily oak-aged, so I’d suggest you steer clear of these.
Chardonnays from cooler regions are also a good bet. Look out for New Zealand and Argentina. The former is much cooler thanks to its latitude and vineyards’ proximity to the sea, while the latter has the benefit of the Andes which allow producers to plant their vineyards high up away from the heat. The result is wines that are crisp, clean and generously fruity without being too confectioned. They won’t necessarily be unoaked, but the style will be rather closer to Burgundy than Australia. Catena Chardonnay (Mendoza, Argentina) is what I consider to be Argentina’s finest example of the Chardonnay grape, lots of tropical fruit yet all the class of a Meursault courtesy of cool fermentation and the use of French oak (which imparts more hazelnut, spicy aromas than the American buttery sort). Available from Waitrose, everywine.co.uk and Majestic at around £8-9 per bottle.
If I still haven’t managed to convince you after you’ve tried some of these beauties, then I give up - go back to your Pinot Grigio and your Sauvignon Blanc, you philistines. But rest assured - you’ll get bored of these too eventually, and then what? As you tuck into a beautiful bottle of Chablis, I will be smugly muttering “I told you so...”
