London - Once upon a time, Chardonnay was Britain’s favourite wine and a must for any sophisticated soiree.
But when, inspired by a TV character, mothers named babies after it, and flashy wine bars served it in goldfish bowl-sized glasses, the writing was on the wall.
Chardonnay went from being sought after to frightfully naff, with the very people who’d been knocking it back by the gallon claiming never to have liked it in the first place.
But now, after years in the wilderness, the wine is finding favour — and flavour — again. Chardonnay is back, thanks to an Australian-led charge and a tweak to the wine’s taste to suit palates seeking a less oaky flavour.
Sales are up. According to latest figures, 18 percent more Britons are drinking the wine this year than in 2014
So why did Chardonnay lose favour — and how did it stage a comeback?
The Chardonnay grape has been around for centuries and though its most famous home is the Burgundy region of France, it’s now produced in almost every wine-making country.
Its popularity exploded in the 1980s with the arrival of New World wines, specifically those from Australia with their consumer-friendly labels that revealed the grape variety on the bottle’s front.
Flavours were big, bright, bold and fruity — and in the case of Chardonnay, often oaky, too. The number of Chardonnay vineyards more than quadrupled, mostly due to extensive planting of new vines in France and Australia.
Pubs started selling more wine, with drinkers swapping their beer and G&Ts for Chardonnay.
By the Nineties, all wine lists offered the wine by the glass, and we were importing almost eight million bottles from Australia alone. And along with Bridget Jones, who declared it her favourite tipple, we drank buckets of it.
Comedian Al Murray, aka The Pub Landlord, even coined the catchphrase “...and a glass of white wine for the lady,” as a nod to the new breed of wine drinkers.
But then something happened — and that something was called Sauvignon Blanc.
Over the next decade, we discovered the joys of Sauvignon Blanc, specifically those from New Zealand. Suddenly, there was a style of white wine that was refreshing rather than just fruity. Instead of tropical fruit flavours, these Kiwi tipples were all about citrus — gooseberry, lemon and lime.
And now Chardonnay has undergone a dramatic style makeover. To understand why and how, we need to give it the Gok Wan treatment by stripping it back and examining it in all its naked glory. As grapes go, Chardonnay is versatile: it can adapt to different climates and thrives all over the world. The wine you end up with depends on where it’s made and how the winemaker makes it.
For example, Chardonnay is the grape behind the great wines of Chablis, in France’s east-central Burgundy region. Here, the mineral-rich soils lend the wine a steely freshness and the wines rarely see an oak barrel. A great Chablis is like tasting citrus fruits in high definition, with acidity to make you smack your lips.
Further south, the Chardonnay grape is behind some of France’s greatest whites including those from the Cote d’Or such as Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet.
Here, the best wines are made for ageing and the flavours are rich and concentrated. Further south in the Maconnais, it’s still all about Chardonnay and the wines tend to be fruity but subtle – and often great value for money.But it’s Australia that’s led the biggest Chardonnay makeover. The buttery, pineapple-chunk style Aussie Chardonnays of old have given way to something less in-your-face. Flavours are still fresh and bright, but not as big and certainly not as oaky. Winemakers call it consumer-friendly. I call it way more drinkable.
Aussie producers realised tastes were changing and adapted.
More vineyards were planted in cooler areas, such as Adelaide Hills. They also started toning down the trademark toasty character by using fewer oak barrels and wood chips — or none at all.
And a process called malolactic fermentation, which changes sharper malic acids to softer lactic acids for a buttery feel, became less fashionable. This more restrained approach has made the Australian Chardonnays subtler. Other countries have learnt from this approach, too. In Chile, many of the newer Chardonnay vineyard plantings have been in cooler areas. The wines are fresh and elegant rather than big and bold.
Daily Mail