Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Chardonnay - This Isn't Love
I little thought that, so soon after my earth-shattering post on Carmenère, I should be addressing varietal matters again. Oz Clarke, it seems, has spoken out on Chardonnay . No doubt he's right about the Bridget Jones effect, but I fancy industrially produced Australian varietals - Jacobs Creek, etc - must have had a lot to do with it. These big, aggressive, over-oaked louts of the wine world disgrace the fair name of Chardonnay - well, fair except as a Christian name (see Footballers' Wives) - which is, as Oz acknowledges, one of the world's great grapes. Sir Les Patterson, always a man ahead of the times, was on to this years ago, with his rousing anthem Chardonnay (of which, alas, I am unable to trace the lyrics). But sadly he never achieved quite the cultural clout of Bridget Jones...
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Ahh Les, John Prescott's role model, dead right about the dreaded Chard, Nige the most misused name of all, surprised Brussels hasn't cottoned on yet.
ReplyDeleteToday's Chardonnay was the 1970s Chablis. Inoffensive white wine, basically, except for the really good vineyards.
ReplyDeleteThis my humble opinion -- if I'm gonna drink white, what I want is good champagne. Otherwise, give me red, red, red -- like the Pommard and Volnays I bought a couple of months ago at their vineyard. I'm still in shock at how much cheaper they were to buy in Burgundy than here, where both the exchange rate and the ridiculous choke-hold the state government has on wine sales in Pennsylvania.