6 minute read
Chardonnay’s Roots: From Burgundy to the New World
By Sylvia Jansen, DipWSET, CSW, Sommelier
Street signs in France, guiding us through Burgundy’s wine regions
The Birthplace of Chardonnay
Long before we began to pay attention to what grape varieties made the wine in our glasses; long before anyone thought about planting any grapevines in California, or South Africa, or Australia; and, in fact, long before the latest tiny virus stopped the world in its tracks, Chardonnay was a player in fine wine.
Whereas clothing fashion trends can last a season, the wine fashion of Chardonnay has been on trend for centuries. The white wines of Burgundy were sought after by nobles, royalty, and empire-builders; Chardonnay-dominated Champagnes have been darlings for hundreds of years; and winemakers in many places in the world have turned their hand to this variety to show their stuff. Chardonnay is so familiar to wine lovers everywhere that many would be hard-pressed to say where it originated and why it came to be so dominant in the wine world. The story has a lot to do with fame, as well as feasibility and fashion.
Chardonnay’s home is in the heart of Burgundy (Bourgogne, en français) in central France, where vineyards of the Côte d’Or (the “golden slopes”) rise up unassumingly along the regional two-lane D974. Passing stone houses, tiled roofs, and church spires marking each village, the route is crisscrossed by many smaller local roads. At certain times of the season, these roadways are occupied by small threewheeled winery vehicles, vineyard machinery occupying both narrow lanes, or small trucks toting baskets of newly harvested grapes to wineries. It is a decidedly rural place, and one not given to advertising that around many corners are inns sporting Michelin stars and vineyards that have been cultivated for centuries. At times, the only hints of the region’s importance are wine lovers taking selfies in front of stone archways at vineyard entrances and the modest brown and white road signs marking the route des Grands Crus. Only a few precious vine varieties are grown: the primary red is Pinot Noir and the most revered white, Chardonnay.
The vineyards of the Côte d’Or—and the fame of Chardonnay—owe a debt of gratitude to the monasteries that occupied these parts for hundreds of years. Wine was part of their daily life as well as their income, and the monks who occupied them were good farmers. Moreover, they were literate and good record-keepers. They had a long view, tracking the performance of certain vineyard plots over many vintages. With these tools, they learned over time that some plots consistently produced higher quality wines than others. The best few plots were dubbed Grand Cru (“great growth”); others just below this rank, Premier Cru (“first growth”). They were given names like CriotsBâtard-Montrachet, some with hand-built stone walls that still stand. It is a tribute to that long-term research that these names still produce mighty fine, albeit expensive, wines.
From the Côte d’Or Domaine Xavier Monnot 2017 Les Grandes Coutures Chardonnay
Bourgogne, France ($44.99) Henri Boillot 2016 Blanc Bourgogne, France ($56.99) Domaine Rollin 2017 Blanc Pernand-Vergelesses, France ($45.99) Jean-Louis Chavy 2017 Puligny-Montrachet, France ($89.99)
South and north of the historic Côte d’Or also stretch important Chardonnay strongholds, including the rolling countryside of the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais (Chardonnay’s actual birthplace is around here—in fact, there is a village named Chardonnay). Further north lies the hillside vineyards of Chablis. Even further north and east stretches Champagne, where Chardonnay accounts for almost a third of the plantings and is a base for bubbles.
Iconic stone pillars guard the Montrachet Grand Cru vineyard (Photo by Gary Hewitt)
More recent history has seen the large southern France region Languedoc plant significant vineyard area to Chardonnay. However, its appearance there was not so much a response to the fame of Burgundy and Champagne but to the massive uptake of Chardonnay in the New World in the late-20th century.
Travels Abroad
Chardonnay’s style has flowed with the fashions, at times big, oaky, and bold, at times lighter and fresher, but its hold has been secure. The variety is amenable to varying climates, growing seasons, and winery treatments. Because of that adaptability, most countries in Europe have significant plantings. Chardonnay has also found its way to many other parts of the world, including North and South America, South Africa, and Australia, to name only a few. California’s 1970s wine boom gave Chardonnay a big lift. Until then, wines were not marketed by grape variety, but by generic, European-sounding brand names, largely in jug style: those of a certain vintage will remember names like California “Burgundy” and “Chablis”—wines that bore little resemblance to their namesakes. Encouraged to produce higher-quality wines, a few California producers began to label wines by dominant grape variety, rather than adopting a whimsical or even misleading brand name. Wine labelled “Chardonnay” began appearing on wine shelves, accompanied by the likes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Other New World countries soon followed suit. The 1980s alone saw the world’s vineyard area quadruple. By 2010, the world’s vineyard area had doubled from that number. Recent figures show that Chardonnay is still one of the world’s most planted grape varieties for wine. If all the world’s Chardonnay vines were gathered together, they would cover all of France’s plantable vineyard area. North and South Pascal Berthier 2018 Roxanne Blanc Mâcon-Chaintré, France ($23.99) Domaine Bernard Defaix 2018 Chablis, France ($39.99) Domaine des Homs 2019 Chardonnay, Pays d’Oc, France ($17.99) Roses de Jeanne 2015 Haut-Lemble Blanc de Blancs
Champagne, France ($169.99)
It is a remarkable hold by a single grape variety once tended quietly by monks in medieval France. Chardonnay has proved it can flow with fashion, run with nobles, and generally make
the lives of humans lovely, one glass at a time.
CHARDONNAY: THE FACTS
ORIGINATED: Burgundy, France
UNDER VINE: 2nd most planted white in the world: 210,000 ha across 41 countries
CHARACTERISTICS: incredible versatility: light to full body, medium to high acidity, dry
ALIASES: Chablis, (most) Blanc de Blancs (Champagne), Burgundy/Bourgogne (white), Meursault, (most) Mâconnais
PRICE RANGE: $10–$10,000+
Primary flavours (from the grape):
green and yellow apple, peach, pear, apricot, floral, lemon, starfruit, pineapple, mango, banana
Secondary flavours (from production: oak, winemaking):
toast, smoke, butter, cream, vanilla
Tertiary flavours (from ageing):
honey, dried apricot, almond, hazelnut, walnut, orange peel
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