Fine Wine: Chardonnays of the World

Experience the diversity of Chardonnay on tasting this evening. Among some classic French expressions, we will also be visiting the Sta. Rita Hills (California), Niagara Peninsula (Ontario) and Mornington Peninsula (Victoria). We will be tasting 8 fantastic expressions of Chardonnay.

Chardonnay

This is the most famous vine variety of all. So powerful is the C-word on a wine label that, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay has virtually no synonyms – although in Styria in southern Austria some winemakers persist with the tradition of calling it Morillon. In the 1980s something extremely important to the history of wine happened: 'Chardonnay' became a name more familiar to the world's wine buyers than any of the geographically-named wines this vine variety had for centuries produced, such as Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne or Montrachet. When the emerging New World wine industries introduced varietal labelling – calling wines by the name of their principal grape variety – it was Chardonnay that made the most friends.

The Chardonnay vine is nothing if not adaptable. Commercially acceptable Chardonnay can be produced in really quite hot wine regions such as the hot interiors of California, South Africa and Australia - here clever winemaking can give it tropical fruit flavours and even some suggestion of oakiness, often using oak chips. In cooler wine regions such as Chablis, Carneros and Tasmania, on the other hand, it can produce apple-crisp juice which, in less ripe years, can have rapier-like acidity.

As well as being adaptable in the vineyard, Chardonnay responds positively to many winery treatments: malolactic conversion, lees ageing, barrel fermentation and ageing, in addition to longer macerations and wild ferments.

The best examples can benefit from five or even more years in bottle to soften that acidity and develop rounder flavours to balance it – although less concentrated examples produced in cool years may simply taste even leaner as the bloom of youth fades.

Wines on Tasting:

• Domaine William Fevre, Chablis 1er Cru Beauroy, Bourgogne, France 2016

• Jean-Jacques Girard, Savigny-Les-Beaune, Côtes de Beaune, Bourgogne, France 2017

• Peggy & Jean-Pascal Buronfosse, ‘Belemnites’, Cotes du Jura, Jura, France 2019

• Newton Johnson Family Vineyards, Upper Hemel en Aarde Valley, South Africa 2020

• Tyler Winery, Sandford & Benedict Vineyard, Sta. Rita Hills, California, USA 2020

• Leaning Post, Senchuk Vineyard, Lincoln Lakeshore, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada 2019

• Ten Minutes By Tractor, Estate Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 2018

• Villa Maria, Taylors Pass Chardonnay, Marlborough, New Zealand 2018