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Chardonnay is the most popular white wine in America, the most widely planted white wine grape in Australia, and the varietal responsible for the finest white wines from the Burgundy region of France. It has attained cult status in Austria and South Africa, and they are also doing great things with it in New Zealand, Argentina and Chile. It goes by a slew of names, including Aubaine, Beaunois, Morillon, Weisser Clevner, and Feinburgunder among others, and it is what you are drinking when you have a glass of Chablis or Puilly-Fuisse.

Of course anything that attains such rarefied status as this also endures the inevitable backlash, one example being the ABC (“Anything But Chardonnay”) clubs whose members shout their defiance in wine shops and wine bars around the world. But in general, they are protesting the overly oaked version of the wine, which is a style much more prevalent in the New World examples and is therefore easier to spot because the name of the grape is usually right on the front label.

It is generally agreed that some of the best Chardonnay wines in the world come from France. All of the top white Burgundies are made from Chardonnay, which not everyone is aware of as French wines are labeled with the name of the winery and the region, but not the grape. Some of the excellent chateaus for white Burgundies include Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault in the Cote de Beaune. The Chablis wines are made from Chardonnay, as are those from the Maconnais (that’s Pouilly-Fuisse among others) and Cote Chalonnaise. From the Champagne region, it is important to note that Chardonnay is also often used as a component of this famous sparkling wine, and when you are drinking a Blanc de Blancs, you are drinking a Champagne made from 100% Chardonnay.

In Austria, the best Chardonnay’s come from the Burgenland region and the Styrian region. In Styria, the grape is also called Morillon, which may have contributed to the lack of awareness of the great single-vineyard Chardonnay wines being crafted here.

Australian Chardonnay’s are easier to spot, because like their other New World counterparts, they label their wines with the name of the grape. Also like their California cousins, they tend to hit their wines with a lot of oak, resulting in wines that are big and buttery and oftentimes even toasty.
What makes that difference in the wines? The easy answer is that oak barrel aging. Most Chardonnay wines are fermented and aged in oak to some degree, but when it spends less time in oak barrels, or spends time in used or neutral oak barrels, more of the fruit notes will come forward in the wine. When it spends a lot of time in oak, especially new oak or toasted oak (that is when some of the inside of the barrel is toasted with fire before it is used) it will take on more of the opulent butter, butterscotch, tropical fruit and vanilla notes. Too much oak, though, and the fruit will become completely overpowered, leaving you with a flabby, uninteresting wine of far lesser quality. This is oftentimes a ploy used when the grapes are of inferior quality and the winemaker seeks to mask that fact.

Of course there are some Chardonnay’s that are totally un-oaked. In the Styrian region of Austria, the “Classic” (or, Klassik) line of Chardonnays are made completely in steel tanks, leaving a wine that is a pure expression of the fruit and the land where the vines were grown (that’s the idea of “terroir” that you hear about). The great French Chardonnay’s are oaked with a very light touch, so that terroir and fruit also take center stage. The wines from the Maconnais and Cote Chalonnaise villages tend towards crisp, pip-fruit and lemon notes, while the wines of Chablis show a minerality that gives them an austerity which is highlighted with hints of honey notes. And then there are the Premier Cru and Grand Cru white Burgundies from the top chateaus, where the wines are rich and complex and do show some of those toasty nut and vanilla flavors, but they do it with an elegance and refinement only seen in the very best of the New World examples.

A great Chardonnay is one of only a few kinds of white wines that truly benefit from aging; Gruner Veltliner, Riesling, some Champagnes and white dessert wines are the others. It was with this in mind that a famous blind tasting was arranged: some of the world’s best Chardonnay’s were put up against some Austrian Gruner Veltliner wines. The place was the Groucho Club in London, the date was October of 2002, and the participants included Jancis Robinson (who selected the Chardonnay’s for the tasting). The results were suprising- at least, they were to those not familiar with Austrian Gruner Veltliner and Chardonnay wines. Not only did Gruner Veltliner take the top spots, the highest scoring Chardonnay was the Austrian cult wine “Tiglat” from Velich . See for yourself :

1 1990 Grüner Veltliner “Vinothekfüllung” Smaragd, Knoll, Austria
2 1997 Grüner Veltliner “Ried Lamm”, Bründlmayer, Austria
3 1997 Chardonnay Tiglat, Velich, Austria
4 1990 Grüner Veltliner Steinriegl Smaragd, Prager, Austria
5 1998 Byron Chardonnay, Nielson Vineyards, Mondavi, California
6 2000 Grüner Veltliner Exceptionell, Freie Weingärtner Wachau, Austria
7 1999 Grüner Veltliner Spiegel Alte Reben, Loimer, Austria
8 1996 Kistler, Dutton Ranch, California
9 1999 Chardonnay 100 per cent Barrique, Mulderbosch, South Africa
10 1990 Chardonnay, Bründlmayer, Austria
11 1997 Yattarna, Penfold, Australia
12 2000 Grüner Veltliner Lamm, Schloss Gobelsburg, Austria
13 1999 Chardonnay Rey, Gaja, Italy
14 1997 Morillon “Zieregg”, Manfred Tement, Austria
15 1995 Grüner Veltliner Kellerberg, F X Pichler, Austria
16 1999 Grüner Veltliner Wösendorfer Hochrain Smaragd, Rudi Pichler, Austria
17 2000 Chardonnay Grand Select, Wieninger, Austria
18 1990 Corton Charlemagne, Louis Latour
19 2000 Chardonnay Kumeu River, New Zealand
20 1997 Chardonnay, Hamilton Russel, South Africa
21 1999 Chardonnay, Gantenbein, Switzerland
22 1999 Eileen Hardy Chardonnay, Australia
23 1999 Kongsgaard Napa Valley Chardonnay, California
24 1997 Montrachet, Domaine Baron Thénard, Burgundy
25 2000 Morillon (Chardonnay) Ratscher Nussberg, Alois Gross, Austria
26 2000 Weiss (Chardonnay/Grüner Veltliner), Schwarz, Austria
27 1995 Grüner Veltliner Steinertal, Alzinger, Austria
28 1999 Grüner Veltliner Rosenberg Reserve, Bernhard Ott, Austria
29 1990 Les Clos Chablis, Dauvissat
30 1999 Grüner Veltliner Piri Privat, Nigl, Austria
31 1999 Meursault “Charmes”, Louis Jadot, Burgundy
32 2000 Puligny Montrachet “Clavoillons”, Domaine Leflaive
33 1999 Chardonnay Tiers, Petaluma; Australia
34 1996 Chevalier Montrachet, Etienne Sauzet, Burgundy
35 1992 Chassagne-Montrachet “La Boudriotte”, Ramonet

The full tasting panel included:
Tim Atkin, Harpers
John Avery, Averys of Bristol
Bill Baker, Reid Wines and Conran restaurants
Stephen Browett, Farr Vintners
Richard Ehrlich, Independent on Sunday
Brett Fleming, BRL Hardy
Matthew Jukes, Daily Mail and Bibendum restaurant
Martin Lam, Ransome´s Dock restaurant
Jason McAuliffe, Sommelier, Chez Bruze
Steve Pannell, BRL Hardy
Jan-Erik Paulson, Paulson Rare Wine
Jancis Robinson, Journalist, Financial Times
Gordon Roddick, The Body Shop and vigneron
Anthony Rose, The Independent
Hugo Rose, Lay & Wheeler
Steven Spurrier, Decanter
Charles Taylor, Charles Taylor Wines
Simon Woods, free lance

To see the scores the wines recieved in this blind tasting, go to Jancis Robinson’s “Purple Pages”.