Nick’s Wednesday Night Sausage Wine – Give Chardonnay A Chance!

A few weeks ago I was flicking through The Sunday Times and I chanced upon an article about The Enlightenment and Immanuel Kant. Always up for a bit of knowledge I began reading. In the Enlightenment spirit, people began questioning established norms, certain traditions and long held habits and beliefs. Inevitably though, my mind started wandering away from German philosophical prose and settled on a subject I perhaps felt more at home with – wine. It did, however, get me thinking and the two subjects began to merge in my mind particularly about that somewhat polarising grape Chardonnay.

Chardonnay certainly has its devotees; Chardonnay, particularly of the Burgundian variety, is like catnip to my colleague Matt. Burgundian Chardonnays from places such as Meursault and Puligny Montrachet attract eye watering prices. So why the problem?

 I suspect it dates back to the eighties and early nineties when many of us were developing a taste for wine. During that period with the rise of “new world” wines from places such as Australia and California, the grape varieties rather than the place names were slapped big and bold across the label. Many of them were also affordable (a.k.a. cheap!) and they were very approachable and (whisper this bit) many people actually loved the rich oaky buttery flavours. It was essential though that they were relatively cheap and so wine producers (quickly to become “brands” in many cases) started to cut corners to keep the prices competitive. They used industrial quantities of flabby over ripe grapes and instead of the judicious use of oak barrels they just bunged bags of oak chips into the vat to produce very clumsy, industrial, cheap wines and many people lapped them up.

So, in a sense, we had the first Enlightenment of people questioning the establishment wines of poised, beautifully balanced but highly expensive Chardonnays by drinking these very affordable, very approachable wines. We are, however, at a stage where we need a new Enlightenment as so many people turn their nose up at Chardonnay because of its perceived cheap blowsy oakiness to the point where the nose wrinklers are now the new establishment. This is a position that is unfair to Chardonnay as Chardonnay is one of the most amenable grapes around and willingly does the bidding of whatever the vineyard and wine maker demands of it. It’s quite an impressionable grape. Chardonnay covers a whole lot of styles from the minerally precision of Chablis and the other Burgundian aristocrats to being a key grape in Champagne and, yes, it will still do the eighties/nineties retro flabby oak things if asked. So give Chardonnay a chance please which, you’ll be glad to hear, finally brings me round to our Wednesday night sausage wine.

Les Argelieres Chardonnay shows how well Chardonnay can present itself with the judicious and careful use of oak. A wine maker once told me that he views the use of oak like a frame for a painting- the oak is there only to support and enhance the wine rather than dominate the picture. It’s about balance. Les Argelieres  has lovely rich fruit and a creamy mouth feel, the slight toast oak adds to it and gives it structure and a nice vanilla and spice touch. We paired it with a Chicken and Leek pie and the fruit and the creaminess went delightfully with it.

So, what I’m saying is throw off your long held habits and customs, be part of the new Enlightenment and give Chardonnay a  chance. A very good wine writer called Simon Woods (now head honcho at Manchester Wine School) once said that to say you don’t like Chardonnay because it’s too oaky is rather like saying that you don’t like cheese because of the blue veins in it or chicken because it’s too spicy – it’s one style, Chardonnay can do plenty of other things. Les Argelieres Chardonnay is a really good inexpensive way of dipping your toe in the water. To sort of paraphrase George Michael; “drink without prejudice”!

Cheers,

Nick