05/22/2026
Today is CHARDONNAY DAY! To honor this day, we felt it only fitting to teach you a bit about Chardonnay and highlight the wineries we represent that produce stellar examples of Chardonnay.
🟡 Chardonnay is the world’s most famous white-wine grape and also one of the most widely planted. The most highly regarded expressions of the variety are from Burgundy and California.
🟡 There are several different ways to ferment Chardonnay, each providing its own unique style characteristic.
-Barrel fermentation- provides the most complexity, texture, and age-worthiness. -Concrete egg fermentation provides a nice textural middle ground between barrel and stainless steel fermentation.
-Malolactic fermentation is a secondary fermentation that converts malic acid (tart) into lactic acid (creamy). This happens while the wine is in barrel during battonage and lees contact. Extended less contact imparts richness and complexity to a wine. Because of this high level of winemaker involvement, Chardonnay is known as the “winemaker’s wine.”
🟡 Minerality is also an important taste characteristic in Chardonnays produced in certain soil and climatic conditions, such as the chalk soil of Chablis in Burgundy, limestone in Burgundy, diatamaceous sedimentary soil in Sta Rita Hills, and clay in Carneros.
🟡 Oak aging is also an important winemaking attribute in most top-level Chardonnays. French oak is generally preferred for its subtlety and complexity. The trend over the last several years has been a decrease in the amount of new oak used.
A large part of The Educated Grape is TEG Winery Consulting, where we represent family owned, quality-driven wineries that have outstanding wines and great stories. We wanted to highlight the wineries we represent that all produce stellar examples of Chardonnay: Evening Land (Eola Amity Hills, OR), Samsara (Sta Rita Hills, CA), Bricoleur (Russian River Valley, CA), ACTA (Russian River Valley, CA), Sandhi (Sta Rita Hills, CA)
