04/25/08 Chardonnay

Welcome to Vine to Wine. This is your host Linda Moran. I am often asked why some wine snobs say they don't drink Chardonnay. While Chardonnay is one of the world's most popular grapes it is probably just for that very reason that some wine snobs claim they won't drink it. In the emerging new wine world of the 1980's wines began to be named for the grapes that made them and something happened, Chardonnay became a household word. Consumers find it easy to drink because very often it is low in acidity and doesn't have a very strong fragrance. Wine grape growers find it nothing if not adaptable - not horribly difficult to grow and profitable. Winemaker's seem to enjoy the wide range of winemaking techniques that they are able to apply to Chardonnay. It is readily blended with grapes varietals like Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. These blends are often very skillfully executed, resulting in some interesting and good wines. Some people feel that the Chardonnay's of today are becoming quite similar to one another especially those that put a major emphasis on the use of malolactic fermentation and French oak barrels. Thanks to that extraordinary 1980's Chardonnay boom, in both America and Australia, Chardonnay is often used as a term for house white wine. These are a few of the stereotypes that haunt Chardonnay and probably contribute to the wine snob attitude  perhaps to them Chardonnay has become to common or pedestrian. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.