Chardonnay

\Shar-doe-nay\ (French) The number one selling wine in America is Chardonnay, and with good reason: at its best, Chardonnay is one of the most versatile white wines ever created, great on its own or a perfect accompaniment to a seemingly endless array of foods and flavors.

No one can say exactly where Chardonnay originated, but it is thought to be a relatively modern grape variety indigenous to the Burgundy region of east-central France. According to The Oxford Companion to Wine, it seems certain that Chardonnay emerged from the Dark Ages to be one of the favored grape varieties of the Christian era, particularly around Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries in the area ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy.

Chardonnay has been extensively researched using DNA profiling by Dr. Carole Meredith of the University of California. She discovered that Chardonnay is a member of the Pinot family and found that Chardonnay grapes are a cross between the Pinot family and a very old and nearly extinct grape variety called Gouais Blanc which originated in Croatia.

The grape itself is a vigorous vine with medium sized bunches of grapes that are tightly packed together. The ripe grapes are a brilliant golden yellow color, but they are also quite small and fragile with a thin skin and require careful handling at harvest.

Chardonnay wines pick up much of their flavor from their environment (terroir), which means they have a very distinct taste and flavor, depending on where they are grown and produced. Warm climate Chardonnays tend to have a wonderful honey, buttery flavor while Chardonnay grapes grown in cool climates create wines with an abundance of stone fruit flavors such as apples and apricots.

Chardonnay is typically oak-fermented in the U.S. In recent years, however, we have seen a refreshing shift in this philosophy, with a variety of different styles now produced, all with different flavor profiles that range from lean and austere to rich, ripe, and tropical.