Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to produce some of the world's most popular white wines. It originally comes from the Burgundy region in eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand.
The flavors of Chardonnay can range widely depending on where it's grown and how it's made. The taste can range from clean and crisp with a lemony zing in places like Chablis, France, to ripe and tropical in warmer climates like California. In cool climates, Chardonnay tends to produce wines of higher acidity with flavors of green plum, apple, and pear.
In warmer locations, the flavors become more citrus, peach, and melon, while in very warm locations, more fig and tropical fruit notes such as banana and mango come out. Wines that have undergone malolactic fermentation will also have softer acidity and fruit flavors with butter, popcorn and toasted hazelnut notes.
Chardonnay also plays a significant part in making Champagne and is also one of the main ingredients in many sparkling wines around the world.
While it can be enjoyed young, the best expressions of Chardonnay are aged in oak and can stand up to several years in bottle, developing more complex nutty and honeyed notes over time.
