When someone exclaims “I hate Chardonnay” this certified sommelier and wine educator lights up. Instead of rolling my eyes or feeling frustrated that an ABCer doesn’t love my beloved Chardonnay, I look at it as an opportunity to lead them on a journey of discovery and to debunk the idea that there is only one style of Chardonnay. This is a perfect time to introduce them to Chablis wine: the benchmark for Chardonnay.
To begin with, this idea of “oaky, buttery” Chardonnay came from a time in the 80s and 90s when the nascent American wine palate enjoyed said style. A style of toasty, oak aged Chardonnay that had gone through full malolactic fermentation/conversion, producing wines with extreme dairy notes. These stylistic choices in the winery created wines that were overtly toasty, oaky, buttery, and with lactic notes. The prime examples hailed from California, with Rombauer being the poster child for this style. Like any good thing, the style went too far, and some of these wines were structurally unbalanced and cloying. Consumers to this day, suffer from residual PTSD from those over oaked and overly round Chardonnays, which is why I am here in defense of Chablis wine.
Chablis Wine For the Win
It is quite easy to “defend” Chablis wine from the ABCer. The single best way to do this is with a taste. 67% of Chablis production is exported, and the US is the #1 export, meaning that it’s an “easy to find” wine. Tasting is,
This Article was originally published on Brianne Cohen
