The Many Faces of Chardonnay

Saturday, June 1st
4:30 - 7:00

Chardonnay has become a polarizing, and greatly misunderstood, wine these days.  It can be summed up with a statement we've heard more than once - "I hate Chardonnay, but I love White Burgundy".  The irony there is that easily 98% of all white Burgundy wines are Chardonnay.  When we hear someone say that, we know that they mean that they do not like what has become the 'classic' style California Chardonnay, with heavy toasty oak, and rich buttery accents.  Driven by the wild success of wines like Rombauer Chardonnay and Kendall Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, that style of the wine was dominant for a good decade plus from the end of the 1980s into the early 2000s.  This style was contrasted by the traditional White Burgundy style, that often had less prominent oak tones, (although not unoaked nearly as often as many people believe), with a more elegant rather than exuberant fruit profile.  Add to that a big growth in the last 10 years of more and more wineries doing stainless steel fermentation and aging for their Chardonnay, and you have even more of a split of preferences and styles.  For us here, it seems to be a balanced split - for every customer we have who comes in looking for big and buttery we have an equal amount looking for lean and mineral driven.  This Saturday we are going to walk you through four Chardonnays that cross this divide.  We'll have one completely unoaked; one that is done all in older 2nd and 3rd use barrels; one that is done with 20% new oak; and finally one with lots of new oak in the classic rich, California style.  This will be a fun insight into the grape, and a chance to see if you enjoy Chardonnay or not, and which style suits you best!

Stoller Family Estate Chardonnay
Dundee Hills, Oregon, 2018

Domaine Sangouard-Guyot 'Quintessence' Pouilly-Fuissé
Pouilly-Fuissé, Burgundy, France, 2016

Domaine Joseph Douhin Rully
Rully, Burgundy, France, 2015

Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay
Edna Valley, California, 2016