Chardonnay

Origin and spread

Chardonnay almost certainly takes its name from the village of Chardonnay in the Mâconnais, southern Burgundy, although some ampelographers trace it back to a Roman crossing. The variety was always grown in Burgundy, but its global fame is largely a creation of the 20th century. By the 1990s it was the most widely planted white variety in the world, and today it covers around 210,000 hectares from England to Australia to California.

Despite its fame, the grape itself is remarkably neutral in flavour. Most of what we taste in a Chardonnay comes from where it is grown and how it is made, not from the variety itself. This chameleon quality is what makes it so valuable to winemakers: a cool, chalky site gives a lean, mineral wine, while a warm site gives a tropical, buttery one.

Chardonnay in the UK

English Chardonnay is the variety's most exciting cool-climate expression. Most UK plantings are in the South East, particularly the chalk downs of Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and Surrey, where the soil mirrors the Côte des Blancs in Champagne. Smaller but important plantings exist in East Anglia, the South West, the Midlands, Wales and increasingly in the home counties and Yorkshire.

The grape ripens reliably in the UK and produces base wines with high natural acidity, modest alcohol and a clean, citrus-driven character. The UK's cooler climate preserves the bright fruit that warmer regions lose, which is one of the reasons English sparkling wines have performed so well in blind tastings against Champagne.

Clonal selection

Most English Chardonnay is planted to one of a handful of Champagne clones, including the so-called 76, 95, 96, 121 and 277 clones, plus a small amount of Burgundian material. The clones differ in yield, bunch size, ripening time and disease resistance. The Champagne 76 clone is widely planted for sparkling base wine, while the richer 96 clone is favoured for still wines. Some producers are now trialling newer Dijon clones, originally bred in Burgundy, that have been quietly making their way into the UK since 2010.

How UK winemakers handle Chardonnay

For sparkling wine, the grapes are picked early, pressed gently and fermented cool in stainless steel, with a proportion in old oak for complexity. The wine goes through the full traditional method, with second fermentation in bottle and at least 24 months on lees. Most UK houses also produce a non-vintage Brut, a vintage Blanc de Blancs and a small prestige cuvée.

For still Chardonnay, the grape is picked later, sometimes with a touch of botrytis for richness, and fermented in barrel. Malolactic conversion is usually encouraged, and the wine spends 9 to 12 months on its lees in French oak. Top examples come from Wiston, Gusbourne, Chapel Down, Balfour, Hambledon, Nyetimber and a growing list of smaller producers.

Flavour profile and ageing

A young English still Chardonnay shows citrus, white peach, melon and a light nuttiness from the oak. With bottle age, the fruit deepens into baked apple, honey and a soft, leesy texture. After four or five years, the best examples gain a distinct English character that some tasters describe as saline, briny or chalky, reflecting the maritime climate and the chalk soils.

The variety's natural acidity gives it a long ageing curve. A great English still Chardonnay from a top vintage will easily live for 10 to 15 years, and there are examples of 20-year-old English Chardonnays from the early commercial plantings in the 1990s that are still drinking beautifully.

Where to find it in the UK

Every major English producer has a Chardonnay in their range. Off-trade, the leading bottles are widely listed at Waitrose, M&S, Majestic, The Wine Society and the better independent merchants. On-trade, English Chardonnay appears on the wine lists at The Wolseley, The Vineyard at Stockcross, The Glasshouse in Kew, and many of the more ambitious gastropubs in London, Brighton, Bristol and Edinburgh. It is also one of the most exported English wines, with regular listings in Scandinavia, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.