My passion for Chardonnay

I wasn’t really into Chardonnay when I started in the wine business, but the first winery I worked for - Arrowood Winery in Sonoma - introduced me to what Chardonnay could be. Richard Arrowood had been making Chardonnay in Sonoma since before I was born and he, along with a handful of others, put Sonoma Chardonnay on the map.  

At the time I began my wine career, big and buttery Chardonnays from Napa were all the rage with a certain subset of consumers. But overall, wine drinkers and industry professionals were very divided on this style. Some would come into the tasting room seeking that bold style and others stuck their noses up at Chardonnay in general because they didn’t like butter. I totally understood. I mean who wants to lick a stick of butter (well, I do if it’s French butter, but that’s another story).

What I learned through my tasting room education is that butter wasn’t the typical style everywhere, but rather some large producers that knew exactly how to sell wine to consumers. When I visited most wineries and tried their Chardonnays, butter wasn’t what I found. Instead, I found wines that were nuanced and delicious. The wines being produced at Arrowood were no exception.

There were four different Chardonnays, including a couple of vineyard designates and a couple of blends. It was one of the vineyard designates that really got my attention, but what I learned was that with the right food, any of them could be incredible. I started to realize that my palate leaned towards that vineyard because it was in a cooler area of Sonoma. A place where the nighttime temperatures dropped much more than the other vineyards. Yet the daytime temps were still fairly high. This allowed the vines to rest overnight and work hard during the day which created layers of flavors and allowed the grapes to retain their natural acidity. Higher acidity meant that the winemakers could have more room to play with textures once the wine was being fermented. Later in my Sonoma career, I was introduced to extreme coastal Chardonnay and wow - did I love it. Chardonnay was quickly becoming my favorite white grape - and over the last five plus years, it is my favorite variety overall.

Our move to Oregon in 2016 cemented this love for Chardonnay. It was the fastest growing segment of the Oregon wine industry. More Chardonnay was being planted than any other variety, including Pinot Noir. A visit to any tasting room at the time would unveil a new Chardonnay coming on the market and, of course, an opportunity to taste more!

So, what do I love about it? I think a lot of the flavors and aromas remind me of comfort. Things like apples and baking spices to vanilla and honey. In some cases it can also go in the tropical direction like pineapple and exotic fruits if it came from a little warmer climate. The resulting flavor profile was typically pretty telling about the weather from that particular vintage or vineyard location. I think I’ll spend some time on weather in another blog. It’s a huge topic and maybe will even need to be a series.

I tend to like a Chardonnay that has a good amount of acidity and creamy texture, but isn’t overpowered by being too ripe or using a high percentage of new barrels. Texture is super important to me (not just with wine, but food, clothes, my coffee cup and more all have to have great texture) and how the wine feels on my tongue and in my mouth generally makes or breaks it. 

That texture is largely defined by malolactic fermentation - a process where a bacteria that converts harsher malic acid (think granny smith apples) to lactic acid (think dairy products) is added to the wine. It’s not actually apples or dairy products, it’s just the acids associated with those products. If you think about the difference between having non-fat milk or heavy cream in your mouth and how it coats, that’s the idea of texture. The malolactic fermentation process can land the texture of a on that spectrum dairy products. However, if you let it go too far and have some of the bacteria remain in the wine, you’ll get butter. Like the actual flavor of butter. And that’s how Napa put buttery Chardonnay into consumers cellars.

I think Chardonnay is a lot about balance. Finding the right winemaking techniques that work for a particular vineyard site. Then making sure you use the right amount of new vs. pre-filled oak. There’s no recipe that will ensure success every time, but there are factors that are in the vineyard manager and winemaker control that can assist in the process.

And when you finally have that bottle that is just incredible, you’ll know it. It will define all other Chardonnays for you moving forward. You will be searching for those characteristics every time you open a bottle. So, if you haven’t found that Chardonnay that agrees with you yet, I urge you to keep searching. There are thousands of producers of this incredible grape throughout the world. Don’t stick to just one region and don’t be afraid to try something new and unexpected - you just might find your perfect bottle!

For more on a Dutch Chardonnay I opened this week, check out my YouTube video here.

Until next time, Cheers!