Origin of Chardonnay
Chardonnay is a mutt. It is the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic
Burundian Pinot ancestor and the Croatia floozy: Gouais Blanc. The Gouais Blanc grape was brought to France in the third century AD by the Roman emperor Probus as a gift to the Gauls from his Croatian homeland. Because of its hardy and vigorous character Gouais Blanc became the grape grown by the peasants throughout the Middle Ages. The grape was grown on the less desirable flat plains of Northern France next to the aristocracy's Pinot vines on the neighboring hillsides. Just like a Hollywood movie, there had to be a romance across this divide of class. The result of the cross was the Chardonnay grape. Gouais Blanc got around, it was the mother at least twenty different wine grape varietals in France and Germany. Some of the better know of its children are Gamay Noir, Colombard, and Riesling. Chardonnay's Eastern European parent has all but disappeared from the vineyards of France. Nobody plants
it any longer and most who did have torn it out of their fields.
The Rise of Chardonnay in the United States
During the sixties and seventies dry white table wines started to become popular under the name of Chablis. The region of Chablis is the part of Burgundy that produces dry, largely unaltered white wine exclusively from the Chardonnay grape. Often these popular "Chablis" were not from Burgundy and frequently not even Chardonnay, but often blends of cheap white wine. The name eventually became synonymous with any inexpensive dry white table wine no matter what it was made from and no matter where it was produced. Although we may look back at that time as comment on how silly and naive we all were, the surge in "Chablis" drinking was the first big moves that the United States took towards becoming a wine drinking country. Previously, most Americans considered European wine an exotic beverage with names like Blue Nun, Mateus, or Lancers. American wines often were sweet fortified concoctions like Virginia Dare or Richards Wild Irish Rose, designed for its alcoholic punch rather than flavor or elegance. The Chablis explosion was the time where most Americans first were introduced to dry table wines. We can probably forgive ourselves our innocence considering how far we have come since. Once we stopped calling it Chablis, Chardonnay became first European varietal to achieve broadly popular recognition in the Unites States.
Fast forward from the "Chablis" craze to the middle of the 1990's. The world was awash in cheap Chardonnay. Much of this wine was from enormously productive bulk wine making areas such as the central valley of California or southern Spain. The wines were overripe, over-oaked, and all over the place. As a reaction of disgust, and an indicator of the increasing sophistication of the palate of the American wine drinking public, the ABC (Anything but Chardonnay) movement was born. This very loosely defined group argued for developing interests in a diversity of white varietals and avoiding heavy overly oaked cheap Chardonnay. Since then there has been an increasing interest in other white wine types, with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris gaining popularity and more recently the explosion of interest in Riesling.
There are now varietal labeling regulations regarding how a winemaker can represent the product in the bottle: if it says Chardonnay on the label it must be made from
at least 75% Chardonnay grapes. Wines that are not made in Chablis may not be called Chablis. Continuing the rejection of overly processed wines there has been an increase in the production and interest of un-oaked Chardonnay wines that show the bright acidity and excellent orchard fruit flavor profile of the grape. The direct impact of the ABC crusade on these future events is dubious, at best. The movement can
be seen more an expression of a sentiment that achieved a cultural critical mass which drove the adoption of a broader interest in wines of greater quality and from
other white varietals.
Burgundy Roots
Chardonnay is the white grape of the great wine growing region of Burgundy. So Burundian is the varietal that the varietal itself is named after the village of Chardonnay in the Macon appellation. Essentially, if you want to make white wine and call it Burgundy, with minor exceptions, it has to be Chardonnay. Like New York, Burgundy is a cool climate for wine making. The winters are cold and summers are long and gentle. The Chardonnay grapes have to hang on the vine for a long time to properly ripen compared to hotter growing regions. The extended ripening allows for the development of a greater complexity of flavor profiles producing wines of great elegance and
balance.
The style of the wine generally reflects the part of Burgundy where it is produced. Chablis, in the north produces bright and racy wines with high acidity. Chablis is seldom manipulated in the cellar, seldom receives malolactic fermentation, or oak aging. As such, it is considered the purest expression of Chardonnay from Burgundy. Chablis expresses the character of the terroir and the grape without manipulation in the cellar.
At the other extreme is the region of Meursault. The winemakers in this part of Burgundy take full advantage of the grapes malleability. The wines typically receive a full malolactic fermentation and oak aging. The cellar work results in rich creamy textures with oak driven toast and baked apples flavors. The philosophy behind this approach is since Chardonnay retains a high amount of acidity when grown in the cool climate of Burgundy, cellar manipulation is used to control these acids, and allow the wine to develop more body and richness of flavor. Generally, even the Meursault wines show some bite from their cool climate heritage.
California was the next famous producer of Chardonnays. The classic expression of a California Chardonnay comes from a transplanting the Meursault style of winemaking to the hotter climate of California. The resulting wines are the big, heavily oaked, buttery textured wines that have flavor profiles of tropical fruit and baked bread. When these wines are done well they can be spectacular expressions of full flavors and body that Chardonnay is capable of; excessive and exuberant. When done poorly, such as the bulk wines produced from the hot Central Valley, they are dismal. Recently,
California has been developing a broader range of Chardonnay styles and particularly
seeing success with Chablis style wines, especially from cooler regions like Sonoma and Mendicino.
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