If you’ve ever watched your host mask a grimace when you exhibit up to dinner with a Barefoot chardonnay,follow these tips to bring a wine others will enjoyIts tough out there for a chardonnay lover. Long the go-to wine of white drinkers (and still the most well-liked white produced in the United States), the varietal that used to be the sole purview of boutique California wineries is now ubiquitous, or corporate and,often, loathed.
What some chardon-lovers call “buttery”, and chardon-haters call “like microwave popcorn”. What used to be enhanced by the subtle impact of oak barreling is now punched up by the standard practice of tossing oak chips in steel barrels (including ones treated with chemicals) or,God forbid, adding chemicals to give the wine an oak” flavor. Even the French gave up the ghost in 2006 and allowed producers to start using oak chips or planks instead of oak barrels.
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Source: theguardian.com