You can find Chardonnay grown around the world. You’ll find it used in sparkling wines, like Champagne and Franciacorta, dessert wines, and white wines that can be rich or austere depending on the region’s climate or the winemaking techniques.
It stands as the most popular and well-known grape across the globe.
Chardonnay – the Chameleon
Warm climate chardonnays might boast aromas of pineapple, ripe yellow apple, and Meyer lemon.
Cool climate chardonnays lean more into green apple, bright lemon, and sea spray. You might hear people speak of “wet stone” or pavement after rain (petrichor). This aroma is thought to be from the soils the grapes are grown in or potentially microbes from the region.
Winemakers contribute to these wines by choosing to ferment them in stainless steel or oak. Wines in stainless steel will be more linear and sharp; in oak, the wine will be more rounded and exposed to more oxygen, and perhaps it will soak in notes of vanilla and/or spice from the barrels.
When Chardonnay is kept in a reductive environment (with little exposure to oxygen), it can develop notes of flint or matchstick.
Malolactic fermentation, if it occurs, will add buttery notes to the wine, changing the malic acid with tart green apple notes to lactic acid notes of milk and butter.
The ripeness level when the grapes are picked, and their sugar content can determine if a wine is steely and lean or rich and unctuous. This will determine the level of alcohol and the texture in your mouth.
This is considered a “non-aromatic” grape, and as such, it easily takes on these flavors and aromas from soil, environment, and winemaking techniques.
When International Chardonnay Day arrived, we realized we had 2 sample bottles in the wine fridge from 2 regions of the globe that are not necessarily associated with Chardonnay.
One bottle was from Piemonte, Italy, the other from Tupungato, Argentina.
Piemonte and Chardonnay
Piemonte is known for Barolo and Barbaresco made from Nebbiolo, and for Moscato d’Asti. There are Barbera, Grignolino, and Dolcetto in the region. But International varieties, like Chardonnay? You don’t hear much about those.
When you hear about Chardonnay in Italy, it is primarily in Northeast Italy in Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and the Veneto. You also find it grown Northwest of Piemonte in Valle d’Aosta. But while Piemonte is not known for this grape, you will find more and more still Chardonnay labeled under the Piemonte Chardonnay DOC.
Ca’d’Gal 2023 Chardonnay Piemonte DOC
The vineyards and soils
Ca’d’Gal is growing their Chardonnay on their vineyard in Calamandrana in Southcentral Piemonte in the Province of Asti. The vineyard at Tenuta La Cova is on a 25-hectare property that is purposefully biodiverse with 9 hectares planted to vineyards, 5 to hazelnuts and the remaining uncultivated with forests.
Here, they grow Chardonnay on northeast-facing slopes. That was the first thing that struck me. Most vineyards in the Northern Hemisphere are on south-facing slopes to capitalize on sunshine for ripening. These vineyards average 15 years old.
The vineyards here sit at 250 meters above sea level or 820 feet. The soils are “white marl and blue clay,” according to the technical sheet. Marl is a blend of clay and limestone. If you are a Chardonnay lover, you might recognize “Marl” and think of the Kimmeridgian Marl in Chablis, which gives those wines a mineral note that Chablis lovers love.
Clay is the least porous of the main soil types. It is dense, retains water and nutrients, and keeps the soil cool. Limestone (part of the Marl) is a soil that retains water but still drains well, making it ideal for Chardonnay.
The winemaking
These grapes were hand-harvested in early September. They get a soft press with dry ice and ferment it in stainless steel. Then, they remained on the lees (the dead yeast cells) until bottling the following spring.
Staying on the lees rounds the mouthfeel of the wine, giving it texture. It can provide the finished wine with the aromas of nuts, hay, or yeast. Leaving wine on the lees also protects against oxidation.
So, what did we find in the glass?
The wine was a very pale lemon in color.
As I dipped my nose in, I got light lemon notes, nothing too sharp, but still not as soft as Meyer lemon. There were mineral notes and saline, a bit of citrus pith, and something a bit medicinal but not unpleasant. There were hovering notes of waxy white flowers, perhaps like jasmine on a breeze. I also got a light lanoline note (something I associate with Semillion.)
In my mouth the wine was at first thin, then it enveloped my palate with tingly acid along the edges of my tongue. My mouth started to water. The feeling in my mouth was a broad oval, spreading from side to side, and the wine had a long, tart finish.
Winemaker Luca Caramellino mentions small white flowers and banana as notes on this wine. Hmmm…Banana, while I don’t recall getting that specifically, there are reminders of banana in the color and texture of this wine.
13.5% abv
I also need to mention the label of this wine, which had its debut at Vinitaly in Verona in April. They enlisted the talents of Italian cartoonist and illustrator Sefano Frassetto.
The Ca’d’Gal logo is an abstract of a rooster, with the beak and tail feathers, the body and leg, melding with the shape of a wine glass, the tail wine splashing out. It is ingenious and memorable. (here is a link to an IG post that explains the evolution of the logo)
Frassetto also created the Chardonnay label, which is a picture of a woman at a table with citrus and bananas and a lemon tree behind her. The Ca’d’Gal rooster pecks at the plate before her.
Mendoza Argentina and Chardonnay
While Argentina is best known for its Malbec, Chardonnay is becoming better known, especially in the Uco Valley. The high-altitude Chardonnays from this region have people comparing them to White Burgundy.
Chardonnay made its way to these heights even before Malbec, with Chandon planting it here for their high-acid sparkling wines.
Virgen Organic Chardonnay Chardonnay 2022
The vineyards and soils
This wine comes from Domaine Bousquet and their organic vineyards high in the Tupungato region of Argentina’s Uco Valley. Domaine Bousquet is Argentina’s largest exporter of organic wine, and its vineyards are Regenerative Organic Certified.
These are high-altitude vineyards sitting at 4,000 feet. This causes significant “diurnal shifts,” the difference between day and night temperatures. These diurnal shifts help to maintain the acidity in the grape as it ripens. The grapes develop thicker skins to protect themselves and flavor in grapes comes from the skin.
The soil is primarily sand, with good drainage and little water retention. It also retains heat. The region is dry, and the vines receive constant breezes from the Andes Mountains, so they do not have to worry about fungal diseases, making it easier to grow organically.
The winemaking
These grapes were hand-harvested in February (remember, we are in the southern hemisphere here). They do multiple passes to catch the bunches at the perfect ripeness level. This is fermented in Stainless Steel.
So, what did we find in the glass?
This wine was deeper in color than the Ca’d’Gal, with a richer yellow tone.
It hit my nose with pungent tart tropical fruit, like an unripe pineapple. But it had a richness, like bright ripe lemon and a hint of lemon pledge.
It swirled around the edge of my mouth and neglected my mid-palate a bit. But on those edges, it was persistent and had a med-long finish. It was heavier on my palate than the Ca’d’Gal. This definitely was more fruitforward than the Ca’d’Gal
12.8% abv – $13 SRP
Michael noted the difference between these two wines as a green apple on the first and a baked apple on the second.
Both wines were satisfying, but as I mentioned before, they were different. It is what makes Chardonnay so fascinating that you can have such variations.
Do you have a favorite Chardonnay? Share it with us in the comments, and tell us what you love best about it!
Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET 3 Certified. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.
When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.
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