the.com/chardonnay
The grape that tastes like whatever the winemaker wants it to, which is the whole con.
means A green-skinned grape variety, and the white wine made from it, prized (or blamed) for how dramatically it transforms depending on oak, fermentation, and winemaker whim.
from Named after Chardonnay, a small village in eastern France's Mâconnais region, in Burgundy — one of several French communes that lent their names to grape varieties grown nearby. The grape itself is genetically a cross of Pinot and Gouais blanc, a humble pairing that somehow produced wine's most shapeshifting superstar.
- origin
- French cross of pinot noir and an extinct white grape
- flavor myth
- naturally neutral, oak and yeast create the buttery taste
- backlash era
- 1990s oak overload spawned the ABC movement, anything but chardonnay
- world domination
- grown on every wine continent, chameleon by design