The many shades of Chardonnay

Chardonnay… To Oak or not to Oak?

With the question constantly being asked I thought to do a comparison.
The two major chardonnay producing regions, for our store’s purposes at least, are Burgundy and California. Both areas produce chardonnay that will see plenty of oak and both produces wines that essentially see no oak treatment. There are a myriad of variables that contribute to the flavor profile of a particular chardonnay, but we will focus on the three main ingredients that lend themselves to flavoring chardonnay.

Soil type, fermentation and oak treatment.

France.
William Fevre Champs Royaux Chablis (21.99)… Chablis is a region that some keep separate and some include in the wine region of Burgundy. It is the northernmost part of Burgundy if you do include it. These wines traditionally tend to be done without oak, ageing in stainless steel tanks or concrete tanks. This particular wine is comprised from grapes grown on a chalky, marl and marly limestone soil. The soil is filled with minerals and old oyster fossils, being that it is an old seabed, which gives the wine a very mineral character. This wine is gravity fed during vinification, which avoids pumping the wine. The wine sees a brief press to separate the solids and liquid and finally a light settling on the lees which allows alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentation to occur naturally. It then matures for 8-10 months in a stainless vat, 10% is matured in French oak. Citrus and mineral flavors dominate this wine creating a very fresh and supple flavor.

Domain Jomain Bourgogne Blanc (24.99)… Although the winery is located in Puligny Montrachet , this particular Bourgogne is sourced from the entire Burgundian area (2.5 hectares that they own. The soil is composed of various types and depths of limestone mixed with marl (clay); Marl is loosely defined as calcium carbonate containing variable amount of clay. They vinify using a pneumatic press. The wines then move to individually determined combination of new, second, and third-year barrels. They never use more than 25% new oak. Then the process of batonnage of lees during period of malo-lactic fermentation is performed. It is then racked, fined and returned to barrel in spring after harvest and bottled with minimal or no filtration.

California.
Morgan Metallico (22.99)… The Morgan winery is situated in the Monterey wine appellation. The soil type in this particular region is a mix of sand and shaly loam. (loam is a combination of sand silt and clay in relatively even proportions). It is hand picked and when it arrives at the winery, the grapes were whole-cluster pressed. After pressing, the juice was cold tank fermented. The wine was not allowed to go through secondary malolactic fermentation and sees no oak aging. It has notes of Pear, lemon, crisp and fresh with relatively high acidity for chardonnay.

The infamous Sonoma Cutrer (26.99)… The Sonoma coast chardonnay is picked from soils made up of sandy clay loam. The wine is hand picked and cold pressed and then aged sur lie for 9 months in French oak. 85% of the wine goes through malolactic fermentation. The wine is split the way they do oak treatment. The breakdown is 20% new French oak, 23% 1 year, 15% 2 years, 15 % 3 years and 27% neutral. This wine has a yellow apple, nuts and spicy character.

To oak or not, that is the question…

Enjoy the chardonnay regardless.

Nick, Wine Buyer West Vail Liquor Mart