CHARDONNAY
Known and loved all over the globe, chardonnay is the ‘superstar’ celebrity of the wine world. It is the quintessential white wine, the name – and taste – on everyone’s lips.
EVERYDAY DRINKING
Rosemount Diamond Label Chardonnay is a lovely easy-drinking wine with a long, lingering finish. The nose displays the distinctive chardonnay aromas of cantaloupe, honey and lime. The palate is dominated by peach and melon characters, with creamy undertones. Try it with roast lamb and a garlic cream sauce.
Rosemount Diamond Label Chardonnay 2006, $15.99.
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NOW AND AGAIN
Coldstream Hills Chardonnay is a classic cool-climate wine, intensely fruity with slaty mineral notes. It has a complex flavour, combining nectarine, white peach and lemon with cashew nut and toasty oak. Wonderful as an aperitif with friends, try it with smoked salmon canapés and mascarpone.
Coldstream Hills Chardonnay 2006, $28.99.
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SPECIAL OCCASIONS
Penfold’s Yattarna Chardonnay is a magnificent luxury wine, perfect for savouring with that special someone. Its name is drawn from an Aboriginal term, meaning ‘little by little, gradually’. The nose is elegant and complex, displaying white nectarine, custard apple and fresh lime, with notes of spice and roasted hazelnut. Lovely as a young wine, it also benefits from cellaring.
Penfold’s Yattarna 2004 Vintage, $120. |
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But why is it so popular? When well made, chardonnay grapes create complex, full-bodied whites of a consistently high quality. It offers a kaleidoscope of flavours – from apple, peach, pear and melon to pineapple, lemon and grapefruit. Wooded chardonnays, which are fermented or aged in oak, have a wonderful buttery creaminess, often with notes of hazelnut and spice, while unwooded varieties simply sparkle with the pure fruit flavours of the grape itself.
Because it’s so full-bodied, chardonnay is especially good with rich food – so much so that it’s occasionally called ‘a white that thinks it’s a red’. But this much-loved wine sings with almost any dish, from butter-roasted vegetables to char-grilled lobster.
Chardonnay is also considered incredibly versatile in the world of wine cultivation. Not only is it the white wine variety planted most widely on our fair soil, chardonnay grapes grow in almost every wine-producing region on earth – from the misty valleys of France to the sun-doused vineyards of Chile. Our beloved chardonnay grows so well, in fact, that experts like James Halliday, author of the Australian Wine Companion, occasionally make cheeky comments about its virtue, calling it ‘promiscuous’, and ‘not at all fussy about the company it keeps’,
Despite these disparaging words, however, chardonnay is adored and applauded all over the globe. So next time you sit down with a chilled glass of this stellar white, toast to its fame – secure in the knowledge that you are in truly excellent company.
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