The Great Chardonnay Face-Off I

Chardonnay may be the most adaptable of grapes, flourishing in a wider range of climates and soils than most other varieties. It thrives at the coolest extremities of grape-growing, most notably in Chablis, and is equally as happy in the warm regions of the New World, from Napa Valley to the Barossa. For the wine-maker chardonnay may also be the most versatile of grapes, yielding wines with the steely minerality and savouriness of Burgundy through to the more overtly fruity and oaky styles which we have come to associate with the New World.

However, change is in the air and New World chardonnays are evolving to encompass a broader and more complex range of styles than in the past. After a blind tasting of Australian Chardonnay, featured in the March 2011 issue of Decanter magazine, the Decanter panel concluded ‘we were stunned by vibrant, serious, terroir-driven wines, the best of which are the equal of top white Burgundy ’. That’s quite some claim.

Here in Manila, for past-President Rene Fuentes that revived memories of a blind tasting of top chardonnays which he organised for the Society many years ago (in the last century, in fact). That event pitted against each other chardonnays from three continents – USA ( Napa and Sonoma ), France ( Burgundy ) and Australia – with some interesting and surprising results.

Spurred on by the comments of the Decanter panel, it seemed time to revisit that Great Chardonnay Face-Off. We invited Manila’s leading importers to nominate their favored chardonnays – with the proviso that the wines should be currently available in stock, ready for drinking now, and with a price cap of around Peso 3,500 / bottle.

Bill Stone