Spotlight on Chardonnay
Of all of the vitis vinifera grapes — you know, the “noble” grapes most commonly used to make wines in the world — Chardonnay is arguably the easiest grape to pick on. More than any other grape, Chardonnay has been over-handled and over-made by winemakers, especially by those who were making wine in the New World in the 1990s. Overripe fruit and excessive malolactic fermentation aside, Chardonnay came to be defined by the barrel in which it was aged (and for how long) rather than interpretations of the grape’s true expressions. Continue reading