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The random product of a chance meeting in Eastern France, Chardonnay is arguably the most popular white wine grape in the world today. Gouais Blanc, a nearly extinct ancient grape, was brought to France by the Romans and quickly became popular among French peasants who planted them alongside the Pinot Noir vineyards of the Aristocracy. This new geographic proximity and each varietal’s desire to cross-pollinate eventually gave way to fifteen new varietals including Chardonnay. The varietal proliferated and eventually made its way to the Livermore Valley in the 1800s. Favored for its rich mouth feel and delicate flavors, Californis currently supports over one hundred thousand acres of Chardonnay making up over one quarter of the state‘s vineyards. This is an area roughly equivalent to the city of San Jose.
This vineyard, Winery Lake, is planted with 80 acres of Chardonnay vines which supply the white wine program at Acacia Winery. In the vineyard, Chardonnay is among the most adaptable of all grape varietals. While it produces the highest quality grapes in cool climate vineyards with chalk, clay, or limestone soil, it can thrive in a variety of conditions on wide selection of soils. Despite this, Chardonnay vines requires special attention from vineyard staff to ensure the highest quality harvest. Because of the varietals penchant for vigorous growth, Chardonnay vines are often planted close together forcing the vines to struggle and compete for water and nutrients. This, combined with regular pruning of the dense canopy, causes the vine to funnel the majority of its resources into the grape clusters rather than the canopy.
However, adaptability is not always the best attribute when it comes to making great wine. Simply because a varietal can be planted in an area, this doesn’t mean that it necessarily should. To produce the best wine, Chardonnay vines require a long growing season commonly found in cooler climate areas like Carneros, Alexander Valley, Santa Maria Valley, Russian River Valley, Santa Barbara County, and Monterey County. These long season areas provide the greatest amount of “hang time,” or amount of time the clusters are able to hang on the vines. Under these conditions, clusters are allowed to ripen slowly, gradually accumulating sugar and developing flavors over several months on the vine. To the contrary, the warmer temperatures experienced in the Central Valley often cause Chardonnay grapes to accumulate sugar too quickly forcing the clusters to be harvested before any significant flavors are present.
Even under ideal growing conditions though, Chardonnay grapes don’t bring a lot to the table in terms of flavor. While many Chardonnay enthusiasts will tout the varietal’s “delicate” flavors and aromas, fans of other varietals often find Chardonnay to be on the bland side. Because of this lack of standalone character, Chardonnay is often considered a “blank canvas” varietal meaning that terroir, vineyard management, and winery techniques play a much greater role in shaping the finished wine than with other varietals. This becomes particularly troublesome in the winery when adding oak or blending it with other varietals(commonly Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Rousanne, Viogner, Gewurtzraminer) which can easily overwhelm and mask the Chardonnay.
In the glass, most wine drinkers have passionate feelings about Chardonnay. Despite being America's most popular wine varietal, there is a huge contingent among wine connoisseurs that detest the varietal. According to British wine writer, Oz Clarke, Chardonnay is "the ruthless colonizer and destroyer of the world's vineyards and the world's palates” in reference to its perceived role in the globalization of wine. That being said, there no varietals as widely consumed and few as widely adored as Chardonnay. Finished wines can range from soft, buttery, and smoky to fruity, crisp, and acidic all depending on where the grapes were grown and how they were treated in the vineyard and winery. Richness, however, is generally considered the varietal’s defining characteristic. Depending on geography, common flavors and aromas include apples, pears, and peaches from the Russian River Valley, flinty and mineral-based notes from Carneros, lemom, and lime from Monterey County, pineapple, mango and kiwi from the Santa Maria Valley, and “fleshy” apricot from San Luis Obispo County. Depending on how much oak is used, additional flavors can include hazelnut, vanilla, coconut, and smoke.
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