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There seems to be two types of wine drinkers, ones who only drink chardonnay and those who wouldn’t touch the buttery stuff with a 10-foot oaky pole.
Chardonnay is the chicken of grapes. It can be prepared in many ways. Just because you do not like buffalo chicken fingers, for example, doesn’t mean you do not enjoy chicken fricassee. There is a very broad taste profile to chardonnay.
To those who aren’t fans of chardonnay:
- Chardonnay can be extremely manipulated. If you don’t like the idea of heavily oaked and buttery versions, such as Rombauer or Butter, you most likely do not like the preparation versus the grape itself. There are many expressions of the varietal that have zero oak or butter taste to it.
- You’ve probably drank chardonnay already, and you don’t even know it. Champagne is often crafted with chardonnay. Veuve Clicquot, for example, is almost half chardonnay. Chablis,
- White Bourgogne (white Burgundy), Macon and Pouilly-Fuisse are almost always chardonnay. Chardonnay is usually low in sugar, alcohol and tannin.
Some helpful hints:
- Oak presence can vary a lot in chardonnay. American Oak Barrel aging delivers the most prominent flavor. French Oak is more delicate. Steel aging will give no oak taste.
- American-style chardonnays can be (but not all are) the most oaky and buttery compared to French styles.
- The butter flavor you may experience in some wine is from a process where winemakers encourage the acid in the wine that is the same found in apples to convert to the same type in milk. This is called “malolactic fermentation.” Save this in your phone, so you can sound really fancy at your next happy hour. Some chardonnays have this, many others do not.
Recommendations for Your Wine Rack
- Chehalem Inox chardonnay, Oregon- No oak, lemon and peaches with a kiss of acid, $20
- Vincent Dampt Petit chablis- No oak, fresh, delicate and bright fruits, $30
- Saintsbury Carneros chardonnay-, Balanced oak, apple, lush pear and a bit of nut, $35
- Schramsberg Blanc De Blancs- A classic U.S. wine (served in the White House starting in 1972) Crisp, dry, Granny Smith apples pie, almond, $40
- Value: Murphy Goode chardonnay- Balanced oak with a fresh roundness. Tropical fruits, apples, vanilla. Made by an Edina native in Sonoma. $14
Alison Perrier Briggs is a level two sommelier and an Edina resident.
