🍇 May 23, 2024, today is World Chardonnay Day! 🥳 The "homeland" of the much-loved grape variety is Burgundy, France 🇫🇷, where already in the XVII. century records also mention it 📜. An early-ripening, abundant-yielding variety that likes calcareous clay soil and can adapt to a variety of climatic conditions 🌍.
The main production areas of Chardonnay are France (Burgundy, Champagne) 🍾, Italy (Veneto area) 🇮🇹 and the United States (California) 🇺🇸, but it is grown in about 40 countries worldwide 🌎, making it one of the most widespread white grape varieties. Chardonnay is a great ingredient for many styles, from reductive❄️ to full-bodied, barrel-aged wines 🌞. It is a variety with a neutral aroma, so it responds well to soaking on the skins, barreling, battonage, dongaing, chipping, and even aging on fine lees 🍾.
Due to Chardonnay's diversity and climatic adaptation, the variety that initially caused huge fanfare has reached the "ABC - Anything But Chardonnay" movement 📉.
Its main flavors are varied:
- In colder regions (e.g. Chablis) 🥶 the unaged Chardonnay has a crisp and mineral character, with star fruit 🌟, quince 🍏, lime peel 🍋, white flowers 🌸 and chalk notes 🪨.
- In slightly warmer climates (e.g. Burgundy) 🌤️ the warmer flavors dominate with a higher alcohol content 🍷. Creaminess and butteriness appear due to the use of barrels 🧈.
- In warmer climates (e.g. on the granite soil of Australia) ☀️ many people combine barrel and tank batches, so creamy-fruity wines are made 🍑🥭🍊, with notes of peach, mango, tangerine, vanilla, lemon cream and honeysuckle 🍋🌼.
For food pairing, warmer style wines are excellent with creamier camembert cheeses 🧀, fattier fish 🐟 and smoked meats 🥓.
For more interesting facts about Champagne, check out the post from last December 31! 🥂✨
💬 Write your favorite Chardonnay experience in an Instagram comment!
Images: Vinum Voyage
Professional consultant: Attila Trembeczki