Chardonnay

There are people who will tell you, with extraordinary certainty, that they hate Chardonnay.

Usually, they don’t.

What they hate is a particular version of it.

Maybe it was thick, ripe and tasted vaguely of vanilla. Maybe it had that buttery quality that seemed to coat your mouth. Maybe every Chardonnay you met for a while tasted as though someone had put a fruit bowl inside a new oak wardrobe.

Fair enough.

But blaming Chardonnay for all Chardonnay is a little like deciding you hate bread because you once had brioche.

The grape is only part of the story.

Chardonnay has range

Chardonnay can produce remarkably different wines.

Climate matters. So do choices made in the winery.

In cooler places it often produces wines that feel lighter, fresher and higher in acidity. In warmer conditions the fruit can become riper and the wine fuller. Oak, malolactic fermentation and other winemaking choices can push those styles further apart.

Which means two bottles labelled Chardonnay can give you very different experiences.

So “I don’t like Chardonnay” often tells us surprisingly little.

A better question is: what was it about the Chardonnay you didn’t like?

If it was the butter

Butter is not an unavoidable Chardonnay flavour.

The character is often associated with malolactic fermentation, a process in which bacteria convert sharper malic acid into softer lactic acid. One of the compounds that can be produced along the way is diacetyl, which can smell distinctly buttery.

How noticeable that becomes depends on how the wine is made.

So if rich, creamy, buttery Chardonnay is what puts you off, that does not rule out Chardonnay. It rules out a particular expression of it.

Try something fresher and less obviously creamy instead.

If it was the oak

Oak is another frequent suspect.

Wine matured or fermented in oak can pick up aromas and flavours associated with compounds in the wood and its toasting. Depending on the wine and the barrels, that can mean vanilla, coconut, spice, smoke or woody character.

Some people love it. Some emphatically do not.

If Chardonnay has always tasted too woody, toasty or vanilla-heavy to you, try one with little or no obvious oak influence.

You might discover that Chardonnay was never really the problem.

If Chardonnay means heavy to you, try Chablis

This is where things get inconvenient for Chardonnay haters.

Chablis is Chardonnay.

The Chablis wine region in northern Burgundy produces its still dry white wines from Chardonnay, yet its classic style sits far from the big, ripe stereotype. It tends towards freshness and higher acidity, with a cooler, more restrained shape.

Plenty of people who insist they dislike Chardonnay happily order Chablis.

Which tells us something useful: we often think we dislike a grape when what we actually dislike is a style.

And yes, Champagne gets involved too

Chardonnay can also be one of the grapes behind Champagne.

A Blanc de Blancs Champagne is made only from white grape varieties. Chardonnay is by far the main one associated with the style, although other authorised white varieties can also be used.

So Chardonnay can appear as a still wine from Chablis, a richer oak-influenced white, a leaner cool-climate wine or part of a sparkling wine.

The grape name alone is not enough to tell you how drinking it will feel.

Wine language has this backwards

This is part of a bigger problem with how wine is presented.

Shops give you grapes and regions. Restaurant lists give you producers, appellations and vintages. Labels give you another layer of names.

Somehow you are supposed to translate all of that into the information you actually need: will I enjoy drinking this?

Imagine doing this with almost anything else.

You say you dislike tomatoes. Before anyone tells you which Sicilian village they came from, it might be useful to establish whether you dislike raw tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce or ketchup.

Wine often skips that bit.

We talk about what something is before talking about what it feels like to drink.

For most people, that is backwards.

Say what you actually mean

Instead of “I hate Chardonnay”, try “I don’t like rich, buttery whites.” Or “I like white wine that feels crisp and fresh.” Or “I don’t mind richness, but I don’t like obvious oak.”

Those sentences are far more useful. They describe your experience rather than asking you to understand the industry’s filing system.

And once you start thinking like that, wine gets easier.

Try Chardonnay three ways

If you have written Chardonnay off, give it one fair test.

Try Chablis at the fresher, more restrained end. Try a cool-climate Chardonnay with a little more fruit and texture. Then try a deliberately richer version with more ripeness, creaminess or oak.

You do not need to identify ten flavours. Just notice what changes.

Which feels fresher? Which feels heavier? Does the oak bother you? Do you like the softer texture of one but not another?

Most importantly: which one makes you want another glass?

That tells you something useful about your taste.

“You hate Chardonnay” probably doesn’t.

The useful bit

You do not need to become a Chardonnay person.

You just need to notice what it was about the wine you liked or disliked. Fresh or rich. Light or substantial. Bright or soft. Oaky or not.

That information will help you choose your next bottle far more than a list of grapes you have decided are allowed or banned.

You probably don’t hate Chardonnay.

You may just have met one version of it too many times.

Sources

• Wine Australia, “Chardonnay: Evolution of an Australian classic”.
• Australian Wine Research Institute, “Wine flavours, faults and taints” (diacetyl and malolactic fermentation): https://www.awri.com.au/industry_support/winemaking_resources/sensory_assessment/recognition-of-wine-faults-and-taints/wine_faults/
• Australian Wine Research Institute, “MLF co-inoculation – how it might help with white wine”, Technical Review, October 2015: https://www.awri.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Technical_Review_Issue_218_Bartowsky.pdf
• Vins de Chablis, official material on Chardonnay and the Chablis appellation.
• Comité Champagne, official material on Blanc de Blancs and authorised Champagne grape varieties.