What makes chardonnay taste buttery

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About Press Contact. About Ethics Contact. Policies and Terms Privacy Policy. Hit enter to search or ESC to close. By Janice Williams October 18, No Comments. Share Tweet Share. Illustration by Irina Perju. How Chardonnay gets its diversity of flavors The beauty of Chardonnay is that it is an incredibly versatile grape.

Wine Fining and Filtration Explained. Calling Out Carbon Emissions in Wine. Get the latest delivered to your inbox weekly. Crisp, tangy characteristics are what you probably look for in an unoaked Chardonnay. Instead of barrels, these are typically fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks. An unoaked version could also have buttery flavors, because the wine can still undergo malolactic fermentation in any type of container. These make appetizing drinks at cocktail time, especially on hot days, or pair well with seafood like fresh-shucked Kumamoto oysters.

These are leftover dead yeast cells and grape skin in a wine that form fine silt. They can add a creamy texture that mimics the effect of barrels.

The conventional practice is to separate a white wine from its lees immediately after fermentation. But to leave the lees in the bottom of the tank and even stir them enhances richness and sometimes adds a baked bread aroma. The wine is separated from the lees before bottling. Wine vats made out of concrete, whether cylindrical, cuboid or egg-shaped, are all the rage now. Some winemakers use them to ferment and age Chardonnay, which adds another twist to the idea of unoaked.

The main advantage of concrete, besides its lack of oak flavor, is its insulation. Concrete tanks have thick walls that stay cool and provide a good, steady temperature for high-quality fermentation.

Basically, balance is about acid. In Chardonnay, good balance should mean that the wine has enough crisp, natural fruit acidity to taste lively, rather than soft and fat—a common fault in lower-priced Chardonnay. Think of what fresh-squeezed lime does for a margarita. The wines of Chablis in Burgundy are classic in this regard. Wine starts in the vineyard. Sign me up for the "hate it" category. Have a burning question of your own? Shoot us a tweet or a message on our Facebook page and we'll line up an expert to get you an answer!

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