Chardonnay Archives - It Must Be Wine O'clock

Wine of the Month: A stonkingly good wine from Northamptonshire …

Produced in Northamptonshire from grapes grown in Essex, this is Fortieth Rule’s first release and it is a stonkingly good wine!

Fortieth Rule Chardonnay 2023, Northamptonshire (England)

This recent discovery from an independent family-run winery in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire is a little gem. Produced from grapes grown in Essex, this is Fortieth Rule’s first release and it is a stonkingly good wine.

With a beautiful nose of green apples redolent of a walk through an English orchard, and bright intense flavours of apple, pear and grapefruit, this is a smooth wine with medium acidity and a lengthy finish. A wine with character that is an excellent expression of an English Chardonnay with a nod to its Burgundian roots.

It’s perfect to drink by itself, or as a pairing with grilled fish, a chicken dish, or grilled vegetables.

And if you are wondering about the name, it is based on the Fortieth Rule of St Benedict, which stipulated that monks should ‘know their measure’ when it came to drinking alcohol! As true today as it was in St Benedict’s day!

Available from FORTIETH RULE (www.fortiethrule.com) (£25) NB Free local delivery for orders to CB1-CB5 postcodes with code CBDELIVER

A delightful, refreshing Chardonnay from California

A delightful, refreshing Chardonnay from California.

Dark Horse Chardonnay 2021 (California)

This is a delightful, refreshing Chardonnay from California. It is a rich, mellow wine with aromas of vanilla, peach and pear on the nose, and flavours of honey, nectarine and caramel on the palate.

The rich, buttery mouthfeel is nicely balanced by the wine’s crisp acidity, all leading to a smooth, lingering finish, and the oak ageing adds a hint of smokiness to the wine.

Enjoy by itself or with a creamy seafood or chicken dish, or a mushroom risotto. It will also pair well with a creamy curry, or a mild goat cheese.

Available from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose (£9-£10)

A rich, flavourful Chardonnay from SE Australia

PepperBox Chardonnay 2022 (South Eastern Australia)

Though an oaked Chardonnay may not be to everyone’s taste, this PepperBox Chardonnay from the Casella winery in New South Wales, is a very good wine.

With pineapple, mango and vanilla aromas on the nose, and tropical fruits on the palate, this is a wine with plenty of character, a creamy mouthfeel, and a smooth buttery finish.

It can be enjoyed by itself, or with a seafood or poultry dish.

Available from Sainsbury’s (£9)

Two cracking wines from Sussex to brighten your day!

Rathfinny Wine Estate planted their first vines in 2012 with ambitious plans to develop their 240-hectare farmland on the windy Sussex Downs, just a stone’s throw from the English Channel. Located on south-facing, free-draining chalk slopes and benefitting from a unique micro-climate, the vines enjoy ideal conditions to produce grapes of excellent quality.

Here are a couple of their very impressive wines I tried recently.

Rathfinny Classic Cuvée 2018

Made according to the traditional method using a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grapes and aged for 30 months in the bottle, this Classic Cuvée Sparkling Wine is a real Sussex sparkler.

With aromas of apple, pear and toast on the nose leading to flavours of brioche, lemon, apricot and a hint of nuttiness on the palate, this is a crisp, dry sparkling wine with refreshing acidity and a long finish.

Available from Rathfinny Estate

Rathfinny Cradle Valley White 2018

And Rathfinny also have a range of still wines, including this very appealing blend of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. With lemon, peach, vanilla and honey on the nose, and lemon, peach, apple and grapefruit on the palate, this is a dry, crisp wine with refreshing acidity and a hint of minerality on the finish.

A well-balanced, medium-bodied wine which is an ideal aperitif and is also a perfect match for a seafood dish.

Available from Hedonism Wines, South Downs Cellars, Quaffology

A Portuguese Regional Wine with plenty of personality

Porta 6 Branco 2020 (Portugal)

Portugal has an abundance of local grape varieties which bring a note of difference to its wines. This Vinho Regional (Regional Wine) from the Lisbon area is a case in point. It is a blend of the indigenous Arinto and Viosinho grapes, together with the more international varieties, Chardonnay and Viognier.

Produced from grapes grown in vineyards close to the Atlantic Ocean, this is a fresh, fruity wine with plenty of personality. Aromas of blossom, lemon, apple and pear on the nose lead to more stone fruit flavours of peach and apricot on the palate.

Medium-bodied with lively acidity and a hint of minerality, this is fine by itself or with a seafood or pasta dish. This is a good quality wine at this price.

Available from Tesco and Sainsbury’s (£7-£7.50)

Wine of the Month

Gutter & Stars, Daylight Upon Magic, Chardonnay 2020

Cambridge is known for many things but who would have thought it was also the home of an urban winery! Journalist and winemaker Chris Wilson established Gutter & Stars in 2020, and last year released his first small batch vintages, each bottle numbered individually.

Having been really impressed by a very appealing, well-balanced Bacchus and a fresh, juicy and well-rounded Pinot Noir, I was really looking forward to the release of the winery’s first Chardonnay last autumn … and I wasn’t disappointed!

This is an outstanding wine, another roaring success for Gutter & Stars. Made from grapes grown in Crouch Valley, Essex, this is a crisp, vibrant and refreshing wine with vanilla, citrus and stone fruit aromas on the nose, and apple, pear, peach and apricot on the palate. With a hint of toastiness from the oak, and a creamy mouthfeel, it is an elegant and well-balanced wine. The wine is a cracking example of just how good an English Chardonnay can be.

I have no hesitation in recommending this excellent Chardonnay as my Wine of the Month.

Available from Grape Britannia (£26.99)

If you like smoky, oaked Chardonnay, then this is for you …

Bread & Butter Chardonnay, 2019, California

Chardonnay may not be everyone’s cup of tea, or rather choice of tipple. Some wine drinkers swear by it and won’t drink anything else; others will drink ‘Anything But Chardonnay’. Nevertheless, Chardonnay is one of the most widely-planted and versatile grapes in the world and comes in a range of styles, depending on its provenance and the winemaker’s approach to wine production. Although wine drinkers may prefer one style or another, or indeed not care for it at all, one of the pleasures of exploring the world of wine is discovering what Chardonnay has to offer.

Cooler climate Chardonnays from regions such as Northern Burgundy, Oregon and Tasmania tend to have more acidity, and more citrussy, minerally flavours. They are generally leaner, with lower levels of alcohol. Warmer climate Chardonnays from more southern areas of Burgundy, and most of California and Australia, tend to be fuller-bodied with higher levels of alcohol and less acidity. These wines have riper, stone-fruit and tropical fruit flavours such as peach, pineapple and banana.

In addition to the primary flavours related to climate, the winemaker’s judicious use of malolactic conversion (MLF) and oak barrel fermentation can introduce dairy flavours of butter and cream, and oak flavours of smoke, vanilla and coconut.

This particular Chardonnay is a rich, bold wine from California. It is a blend of grapes grown in Monterrey and the cooler Los Carneros, and has notes of apple, vanilla, butter and peach, and flavours of butter, honey, toast and tropical fruit. Soft and creamy with a long, smooth finish, it is a well-balanced wine. If you like smoky, oaked Chardonnay with plenty of body, this is a fine example and well worth trying.

It is a wine that will go well with a creamy chicken dish, a rich pasta dish or soft cheese.

Available from Majestic (£15.99, Mix Six £13.99)

Another happy ending …

Hot on the heels of the Californian Bourbon barrel-aged Zinfandel I recently reviewed, I simply had to try the winery’s similarly aged Chardonnay.

1000 Stories Chardonnay 2019 (USA)

‘Years ago, when I was just starting out as a winemaker, it was almost unheard of to get French oak wine barrels and American oak barrels were for whisky, not wine. But we still needed barrels to age our wine, so we purchased new and used Bourbon barrels. Today American and French oak wine barrels are commonplace, so the inspiration for 1000 Stories is a nod to the way things were.’ – Winemaker Bob Blue

This is a delightful wine. Dry with medium acidity and a lingering finish, it has aromas of vanilla, peach and pear, and a pleasant smokiness on the nose, leading to flavours of baked apple, melon and caramel on the palate. It is a smooth, velvety, well-balanced wine, with a lovely creaminess to it. The wine is aged in traditional French and American oak, with part of it also aged in bourbon barrels to give it just that bit of extra character and complexity.

We had it with grilled salmon and it went down a treat.

Available from Tesco and Sainsbury’s (£15)

Chardonnay, a ubiquitous grape variety that can also be gloriously, differently English …

When Hugh Johnson (Pocket Wine Book 2021) described Chardonnay as ‘the white grape of Burgundy and Champagne, now ubiquitous worldwide, partly because it is one of the easiest to grow and vinify’, I wonder whether he was also thinking of Chardonnay grown in England?

In the early 1950s there were a few short-lived attempts to grow Chardonnay in Hampshire and Surrey but the climate didn’t help much. Since the 80s and 90s more and more growers have given Chardonnay a go and have been very successful. But these for the most part were grapes used to produce sparkling wines, often very good ones too. Indeed, many of these sparkling wines have gone on to win all kinds of awards and beaten some very good Champagnes to boot!

But what about still wines? While we haven’t yet seen quite the same volumes as with sparkling wines, there are some very good Chardonnay still wines available nowadays. As Oz Clarke rightly notes in his excellent book ‘English Wine’, the best Chardonnays in England don’t taste like Chablis or Meursault, they taste ‘gloriously, differently English.’

And here is a very good example: Jack O’ The Green Chardonnay 2018

Produced from grapes grown in East Sussex, this is a refreshing wine with aromas of lime and apple on the nose, leading to apple, gooseberry, peach and vanilla on the palate. A smooth wine with medium acidity and a lengthy finish, it has real character, just like its name. This is a very appealing wine that’s a perfect match for seafood or grilled vegetables.

Available from Grape Britannia