In Defense of Chardonnay

In Defense of Chardonnay

I’ve pretty much been a member of the ABC club for more then 10 years.  The club, also known as “Anything But Chardonnay” is pretty exclusive – if you measure by the number of members.  You see, Americans love chardonnay and frankly, I don’t. 

In its purest, unadulterated form, handled by a skillful vineyard master and a talented winemaker, wines made from the chardonnay grape are rich and smooth, with fresh flavors that can range from apple and peach to lemon and/or tropical fruit and aromas that can remind you of a fresh garden.  An interesting note about chardonnay is that through the fermentation process and/or through aging in oak barrels, the wine can take on a buttery or creamy taste and feel in your mouth.  In small amounts, this gives a wine a roundness, smoothness or fullness that is very satisfying. 

But winemakers discovered that wine drinkers in the United States really like that buttery flavor.  So they started using more oak in their wines to ensure a “buttery” or “creamy” taste.  Americans, being somewhat unfamiliar with this type of wine, came to believe that all “good” chardonnay was “buttery” tasting.  This was great for winemakers, who quickly discovered that even if they had bad grapes, they could increase the oak and hide inferior chardonnay, even though this would ultimately hide the more subtle flavors that make chardonnay was it is in the first place.

This is what offended me so much when I started seriously tasting wine in the mid-1990s.  I wasn’t really tasting the chardonnay grape in my wine; I was tasting lazy winemakers’ oak barrels.  Because new oak barrels can be quite expensive, some winemakers even turned to letting oak chips soak in their chardonnay before bottling it.

Thus, I became a chardonnay hater – refusing to drink any chardonnay that even hinted on its label that it was oaked or that it had a “creamy” or “buttery” flavor.  In fact, the only chardonnays I would drink were those made in Burgundy, the region in France that is famous for its exquisite – and quite expensive – chardonnay.  Burgundy winemakers believe strongly in “terroir” – the idea that the specific dirt and climate of a particular vineyard is reflected in the wines made from the grapes grown there.  Thus, the use of excessive oak in Burgundy is heresy.  After all, if your 25-acre vineyard has been famous for the wonderful chardonnays it has produced for two hundred years, why would you mask those subtle flavors that made you famous in the first place?

But then my life changed.  I had three children and my disposable income all but disappeared.  Suddenly, I could not afford to drink a $50 bottle of wine.  So, I just quit drinking chardonnay all together.  Not too long ago, at some friends’ urging, I decided to try a few of the popular, “cookie cutter” chardonnays – the wines that I had so scrupulously avoided for years.  What I discovered was quite interesting.  I still don’t think that these wines are show stopping.  I don’t even find them to be very interesting.  And I certainly don’t believe they age very well.

But for your average wine-drinking occasion, I’m not sure that any of that matters.  The fact is that these wines actually have a lot to offer.  You can find many of them in local stores for very attractive prices.  Their flavors are pretty consistent from bottle to bottle and, frankly, from maker to maker.  The advantage of that is that you know what to expect before you ever open the bottle, and there’s little risk you’ll end up pouring it down the drain in disgust after just a few sips.  Perhaps nicest of all, these wines are relatively versatile – they can be paired with a fair range of foods, but are equally nice as a cocktail wine before dinner. 

All this makes me offer you a toast:  Here’s to American chardonnay.  It’s dependable, versatile and understands the concept of value. 

If you would like to find a bottle or two of these wines, try any of the following, which are widely available locally:  Kendall-Jackson, Beringer, Ravenswood, Forest Ville, Meridian or Chateau Souverain (all range between about $10 and $20). 

If you would prefer to try an inexpensive chardonnay without a lot of oak, I can recommend a few inexpensive examples of those, as well:  Clos du Bois, St. Francis, Guenoc or Smoking Loon (all range between about $10 and $20).

Or, you can ask me for a personal recommendation.  You’ll find me in the chardonnay section.