not-So-Pretentious Wine Reviews...except merlot.

Wine Reviews - >> Read Now

No Chardonnay!

WHY WE’RE NOT DRINKING CHARDONNAY

From the movie “Sideways.”

Unfortunately, Merlot is not the only offender when it comes to over-produced, bland and flabby wine. Again, Miles dislike of California Chardonnays is accurate. Instead of the Chardonnay fruit that you should be tasting in your wine, the wine is masked by oak and vanilla flavors, often imparted in the case of cheap Chardonnay by oak chips rather than expensive oak barrels, and altered by secondary malolactic fermentation (the process by which malic acid is converted into lactic acid), which “softens” the wine and gives it that “buttery” taste. Miles is not alone in his dislike for American Chardonnay. Indeed, in the first paragraph of Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher’s article about Chardonnays, the couple writes: “If you were planning to head to the wine store tonight to pick up a bottle of American Chardonnay under $20, we have one word of advice: Don't.” (“When Cheap Chardonnay Is No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, Apr. 29, 2005, p. W8). But Chardonnay need not be dull, lifeless, wood-flavored water. The great white wines of Burgundy - Montrachet, Meursault and Chablis, among others - are all made from 100% Chardonnay. And there are a lot of producers making delicious, inexpensive Chardonnay without the use of oak and secondary malolactic fermentation as a crutch. It is the express mission of NoMerlot.com to guide you to excellent drinking, inexpensive white wines, whether they be Chardonnays or not.