Decanter Cellar: 20 must-try Chardonnay

Chardonnay can almost certainly lay claim to being the foremost white grape in the wine world.

The driving force behind white Burgundy and a key ingredient in Champagne, its fame as a grape and its capacity to thrive in all manner of environments has seen it spread across the globe.

Scroll down for 20 must-try Chardonnay

Unlike its parent, Pinot Noir, it’s an extraordinarily malleable grape, at home in both cool and warm climates.

Its character and profile changes accordingly too. In cooler regions it can be fine, mineral and nervy. In warmer climates, it becomes riper, fruit-filled and tropical.

It can also be worked in pretty much any way the winemaker wants, as its relatively neutral natural profile means it takes well to lees ageing, batonnage and oak regimes of all kinds.

And it’s an excellent base for sparkling wines as well.

Backlash and revival

Its global footprint, increasingly garish, mass-market iterations and a spate of premature oxidation in high-end white Burgundy led to a backlash against Chardonnay in the late 1980s through to the mid-2000s.

But, buoyed by a tide of smarter winemaking, it has bounced back stronger than ever before.

Fresh appreciation for white Burgundy, grower Champagne and beautifully-judged wines from Sonoma to Gisborne has put Chardonnay squarely back in the frame as a great white grape.

Let’s see where its key regions are today, along with a selection of wines that have grasped the attention of Decanter’s experts over the last 12 months.

Burgundy

Like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay’s home is eastern France. Here, from Chablis to the Mâconnais, Chardonnay really shows off what it can do.

The cooler north provides a great base wine for Crémant de Bourgogne and climate change is making the whites of the Grand Auxerrois a tempting value proposition.

But pure, mineral Chablis is the great draw here, thrilling diners and wine lovers for generations.

Head further south and you find the big guns of the Côte d’Or, Montrachet and Meursault, among the rarest and expensive white wines in the world.

And then the southern vineyards of the Mâconnais, another fine hunting ground for excellent value white Burgundy.

You can find out a lot more about recent white Burgundy releases in our recent vintage reports on Chablis 2023 and Burgundy 2023.

Champagne and other French fizz

The leading white grape in Champagne, Chardonnay provides the acidic backbone, fresh and floral notes and mineral filigree in blends. When used on its own, cuvées are known as ‘blanc de blancs’.

These are among the most-celebrated single-variety Champagnes, and many houses tout their prowess in being able to expertly pull-off the tricky balancing act that comes with working with one grape.

As such, many prestige cuvée blanc de blancs tend to showcase the house’s portfolio of vineyards and how it can draw on grand and premier cru sites to make a rare and luxurious cuvée.

Beyond Champagne, Chardonnay is also widely used to make Crémant throughout the country, not least in Burgundy (mentioned above) but also the Jura and (to a lesser extent) the Loire, where it is, again, often paired with Pinot Noir.

Australia

Chardonnay has carved out a particular home and character at the opposite end of the world to its homeland in Australia.

When the wave of New World wines came crashing over Europe in the late 80s/early 90s, Australian Chardonnay took the tastebuds of jaded British palates by storm.

Today, a more nuanced take on Chardonnay from regions such as Margaret River, Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsular have gained wide acclaim.

And Chardonnay is put to increasingly good work in Tasmania’s sparkling wines as well.

New Zealand

Sauvignon Blanc may be New Zealand’s best-known grape, but there was a time when Chardonnay might have become its calling card.

As it is, Chardonnay is grown throughout the country and with superb results. Given the range of climates in New Zealand, there is great variety in the styles of wines that are produced.

Like an inverted Burgundy, wines can be leaner and nervier in the cooler south and more loquacious and ripe in the warmer north.

The refinement and quality of New Zealand Chardonnay is one of the great insider wine tips.

The US

Along with Australia, it is in the US that Chardonnay quickly cemented itself as the country’s foremost white grape.

Up and down the length of California and in the wilds of Oregon, Chardonnay thrives in the diversity of climates offered by the American west coast.

It was here in the US, especially in central and southern California, that Chardonnay really took on its golden aura of popcorn butteriness robed in oak.

But, as North American editor Clive Pursehouse argued last year, don’t fall for the caricature of US Chardonnay all being like this.

As in other countries, refinement, elegance and sense of place are much more in evidence these days, and from the Dundee Hills to Santa Ynez Valley, US Chardonnay positively hums with delicious energy.

Several were given pride of place among the Top 50 US wines tasted by Decanter last year.

Click here for over 10,000 Chardonnay references from the Decanter database

South Africa

The South African wine revolution of the last few decades has been a revelation for Chardonnay in the country.

Like it parent, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay has found the southern part of the Cape, around Elgin and Walker Bay very much to its liking, and the beautiful balance of ripeness and freshness makes them lip-smacking treats.

Look to Hemel-en-Aarde for some truly standout examples.

Around the world

Chardonnay is very much a global grape. Due to its close relationship to Pinot Noir you can generally be assured that where’s one the other won’t be far behind.

In Europe, one place you might not expect it is Italy. Its chief role here is in the sparkling wines of Franciacorta and Trentodoc.

That said, there are some notable proponents of still Chardonnay elsewhere in the country including Antinori, Gaja and Löwengang.

In England, Chardonnay has once again spearheaded the charge in sparkling wines but ambitious projects such as Chapel Down’s Kit’s Coty have seen it become a real contender in English still wines as well.

Finally, there’s Chile and Argentina. With its huge climatic diversity, in high altitudes, by the sea and in the dry extremes of the Atacama Desert, Chile has been producing some truly excellent Chardonnay in recent years that really play to the grape’s strengths.

That said, the quality of Chardonnay in Argentina is not to be sniffed at by any means and remains hugely under-appreciated.

If you really wanted to wow a jaded wine lover in your life, a good Argentine Chardonnay could be the move…

Decanter Cellar: 20 must-try Chardonnay:

Related articles

• Decanter Cellar: 18 must-try Pinot Noir
• White Burgundy 2022: Three domaines with wines worth waiting for
• Kumeu River: Creating ageworthy Chardonnays