Chardonn-Oy
Or is it Chardon-NAY. Some say Chardonnaise. Rhymes with malaise."ABC" (Anything but Charonnay) is oft heard in restaurants and bars. And verily the worst ones, that motley crew of butter-top, oak-down-to-the-balls offenders are truly plonk.
That said, there are two worthy types of Chardonnay. Low and high.
Low (to Medium) Chardonnay...
... is not expensive (duh); none of them has anything to do with butter; in fact, some are brutally unoaked, surprisingly pale in color and bright, sharp, clean.
Calera, Central Coast -- just a bit of butter, bit of oak. Gary Vaynerchuk likes it.
Cambria, Santa Barbara County -- they do everything well.
Cetena, Argentina -- Clean, flinty, tasty. As Borat says, "Aaah like."
Echeverria, Chile (best buy)
Firestone, Napa
Gouguenheim Valle Escondido, Argentina -- Like the museum, only different.
Grand Res Bien Nacido, Napa
Healdsburg Ranches, Sonoma -- unoaked, good acidity, apples and kumquat. Good value at around $10.
Kali Hart, Napa
Kesner Wines, Napa, formed in 2002
Spring Seed Wine Co., Australia -- unoaked
Yalumba, Australia
Wente, Napa
High Chardonnay...
... is expensive and nothing like the cheap stuff, or a Chablis or white Burgundy.
Gary Farrel, Napa -- Veddi, veddi nice
Hyde, Napa -- Food & Wine goes bonkers for this one
Londer -- we love Londer, from the Anderson Valley
Merryvale Reserve Chardonnay, Carneros
Roche Carneros Estate
Trefethen, Napa -- French style (pronounced "not melotactic soup")
(Extra Credit) What winemakers study...
Major commercially available strains for induction of malolactic fermentation in wine were examined for arginine metabolism in a resting cell system at wine pH with the aim of evaluating their ability to excrete and utilize citrulline, a precursor of carcinogenic ethyl carbamate (urethane). All strains tested excreted citrulline from arginine degradation. Citrulline was stored intracellularly during growth in arginine rich medium and was released upon lysis of the cells. All strains were found to degrade citrulline as a sole amino acid and some of them were able to reutilize previously excreted citrulline.
Um. Huh?
