“Ooh, ABC darling! ABC!” Is a familiar expression heard when someone is asked what wine they would like to drink. The ‘Anything But Chardonnay’ contingent are zealous in their mistrust of the Chardonnay grape, but as spring begins to arrive and the (hopefully) more favourable weather starts to encourage us to yearn for a chilled white wine in the sunshine, we should think again about this much maligned and misunderstood grape.

Chardonnay originated in the Burgundy region of France but is now grown all over the world, from across Europe to South America, Australia and New Zealand. It is a hardy and adaptable grape and produces consistently great results in both cool and warm climates. Chardonnay’s  flavour is traditionally relatively neutral, but responds to its ‘terroir’ like no other white variety. The Kimmeridgian soils of Chablis in Burgundy, France with it’s wonderful complex expression of pure crisp citrus minerality is a case in point.

Where this grape is grown and what happens to it in the winery after harvest offers a breath-taking vista of different flavour and aroma profiles. Some of the world’s greatest and expensive wines are made from Chardonnay (a Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2015 Burgundy will set you back a minimum of £1,500 a bottle) as are some of the most approachable, affordable and easy drinking. The three components of Champagne are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and yes, Chardonnay. There are so many different styles and flavours; so why do we still have an aversion to it?

The simple answer is of course reputation. It is a well known phrase that ‘reputations are hard won and easily lost’ and this is absolutely the case with Chardonnay. During the late 1980’s onwards the UK began to develop a taste for New World wines, especially those from Australia. These heavily oaked wines tended to be more easy drinking in style than traditional, austere Old World wines from France or Italy. They were also easy to understand by having the name of the grape on the label rather than the region they were from and they were relatively cheap. Australian producers responded to the surge in demand by switching rapidly to mass production; quickly planting more vines over vast areas in poor quality soil and using oak chips rather than expensive barrels during fermentation to keep costs low. These wines were everywhere, every bar, restaurant, pub and supermarket had several to choose from and the quality rapidly dipped along with their reputation. We’d all had too much of a good thing; until eventually the oaky, buttery bubble finally burst and such was the ubiquity of Australian Chardonnay that it also managed to unfairly taint the reputation of Chardonnay right across the world. The ABC brigade was born.

So yes, in fairness to the ABC’s, they definitely had a point but that was then and this is now. Times change and so do wines. Happily, by the beginning of the 21^st Century Australian winemakers had begun to get their house in order with regards to quality and are producing much more delicate, nuanced Chardonnays with subtle use of oak such as our outstanding Flametree Chardonnay from Margaret River, with notes of grapefruit, dried pear and peach leading to a lemon curd and citrus finish (£17.95 a bottle). Don’t like oak? Not a problem, our Biscardo Oropasso from Veneto Italy has notes of citrus and tropical fresh fruits with a clean citrus finish (£11.95 a bottle).

But what about closer to home? Here in the UK an 2021-2022 industry report from Wine GB placed Chardonnay as the number one planted grape variety on these shores with 1179ha of land under the Chardonnay vine in England and Wales alone. Currently it’s predominately used as a component for Traditional (Champagne) Method English Sparkling Wines, but expect to see more high quality oaked and unoaked still Chardonnays cropping up over the next few years.

So remember, the next time someone yells ‘ABC’ refer them to the ‘CIA’…

Chardonnay Is Amazing!