Prejudice is easy as ABC

A friend recently confessed that she had not drunk Chardonnay for five years – but I knew she was not quite telling the truth. I had personally poured her a glass of Chablis just a few months ago and it went down a treat with grilled sea bass.

Anything But Chardonnay or ABC as it is otherwise known has become a bit of a mantra with some drinkers as they remember the deep yellow, oily, oak-reeking examples of just a few years ago. Why risk splinters from that kind of wine when you can have a glass of plain, tasteless, innocuous, dilute, slightly sweetened Pinot Grigio from the hills of the Veneto?

Ignoring a major grape variety like Chardonnay is a bit like ignoring lamb, or cheese or some other major food group. Yes, you can live without it but you miss out on a whole range of flavours that you can’t get anywhere else. And yet I know dozens of (mainly) women who confidently express their dislike, if not revulsion, of a harmless grape whose only sin has been to be badly handled by a bunch of misguided winemakers.

It really is the fault of the Australians. More than 10 years ago, in an attempt to ape the classic wines of France, they decided to put their white wines, predominantly Chardonnay, in lots of oak. That’s what the French do and so they followed suit. But their grapes were riper and lacked acidity, while the oak they chose was harsher.

It doesn’t matter to many drinkers that the Aussies have recovered from their oak-fest and have learnt to handle it with caution and with style. Nor does it matter that places like Chile, South Africa and even the southern parts of France avoided the wooden overcoat phase of winemaking and are making balanced, elegant wines that may or may not have spent time in oak.

To some people Chardonnay is tarred with the same brush of shame, no matter where it comes from nor how it has been made. In any other walk of life this might be thought of as prejudice.

So let’s go back to my misguided friend and her glass of Chablis. Just because it doesn’t have Chardonnay on the label, it doesn’t mean she has avoided the C grape. It is always made from 100 per cent Chardonnay, grown on the hillsides surrounding the town of that name. Most Chablis is unoaked but top-notch Grand Cru may be fermented in barrel to add more layers of flavour and interest – but you won’t know from the label. That is down to the winemaker’s discretion.

There are plenty of other wines made from Chardonnay – Meursault, Puligny Montrachet, and even ordinary Bourgogne Blanc and these also may have had a judicious touch of oak, and yet I suspect if I offered her a glass of these wines she would be very happy to accept. It is just wines that declared Chardonnay on the label which spark this Anything But Chardonnay reaction.

So how can my friend and the rest of the ABC drinkers recover from their irrational fear of the C grape? First of all it is worth recognising the value of Chardonnay in the lexicon of drinking. Because it is grown all around the world, from Chablis to Chile and from California to the Cape, it has a range of flavours depending on the heat and sunshine in each vineyard. There are also different clones which can produce large, flabby, tasteless bunches of grapes or tiny, flavour-packed, crisp acidity grapes which transform into equally vibrant wines. This means that Chardonnay can pack a whole range of flavours from crisp, green apple notes through pineapple and peach to the big, rich, tongue-rolling, concentrated wines that probably need a year or so in oak just to balance the flavours.

The first step to recovery is to look for the words “unoaked” on the label. Head first to Tesco and find a bottle of Mad Bay Unwooded Chardonnay 2011 from Western Australia (£9.99). Chill it down and prepare a salad of leaves, chicken and a light touch of dressing.

Pour a glass of Unwooded Chardonnay and note first, the colour, which is pale and bright and then the aroma which is lively, crisp and full of peach and tropical fruit character. The flavour zips across the palate, combining yellow stone fruit, a touch of citrus and ends clean and fresh and it goes wonderfully with that salad. To balance the nerves, try the same wine with grilled fish and note how the flavour combines well with food, particularly if you have a knob of nutty, brown butter slicked across the fish.

Now move to the South African end of the shelves and look for Rustenberg Unwooded Chardonnay 2010 and note the riper, more peachy fruit with clear, clean flavours on the finish (£9.99 Harrogate Fine Wine). Try this with fish baked in sauce, with salmon or with lemon-zested chicken and see how well it combines with the food.

Sometimes the price of a bottle tells you that oak hasn’t been used during the ageing process and the great value Cowrie Bay Chardonnay 2011, New Zealand (£5.99 Waitrose) is fresh, bright and full of white peachy fruit without a hint of oak.

Once you get used to the taste of unoaked Chardonnay, maybe then it is time to try one with just a hint of oak, just to show that they have moved on from the oak-tea style of old to refined, balanced wines.

Try Wither Hills Chardonnay 2010 (£7.99 on multibuy at Majestic) which has spent a little time in oak but still retains its great fruit flavours. Finally, pop the cork on a bottle of Blanc de Blancs Champagne – try Sainsbury’s Blanc de Blancs now on offer from £22.49 to just £16 until 21 August and enjoy its clean, fresh, citrus and toasty notes.

Naturally, it is made from 100 per cent Chardonnay.