Grape Varieties & Winemaking - Key White Grape Varieties - Chardonnay
3 important questions on Grape Varieties & Winemaking - Key White Grape Varieties - Chardonnay
What is Australia's most planted classic white variety. Where is it found?
- Chardonnay, 3rd in ranking (after Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon),
- 21.000ha, more than half of white wine production
- Found in almost every region
- Versatile variety
Chardonnay is Australia's most planted white variety. What are the different styles, prices and quality?
3 styles:
- Sparkling
- Inexpensive / unoaked: leaner style, tank-fermented, with little oak influences (chips, staves, re-used barrels).
- High quality/ oaked: ripe fruit, m(+) acidity, well integrated oak. Complexity, balance and texture from:
- Ambient yeasts
- High solids in fermentation
- Barrel fermentation
- Lees ageing
- Barrel maturation typically in French oak
- MLF depends on the climate. In warmer areas often blocked.
- Chardonnay is blended with Semillon and gives ripe fruit flavours in the blend.
- Typical flavours: nuts, stone fruit, citrus
Even though Chardonnay is grown 'everywhere'. What are the key or top regions where Chardonnay is grown in Australia?
- Adelaide Hills - cool climate
- Hunter Valley - warm climate, elegant
- Margaret River - world class, age worthy
- Tasmania - dry and delicate
- Mornington Peninsula - influenced by the Southern Ocean delicate unoaked to medium bodied and rich
- Yarra Valley - elegant, high acidity, age worthy
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