Albarino has:. Chenin Blanc has:. Pinot Grigio has:. All you need to know about unoaked Chardonnay: A quick guide. Unoaked Chardonnay is a clean and crisp style of this popular full-bodied variety. How would I describe unoaked Chardonnay?
Bright This style is going to wow your taste buds in a different way than an oaked Chardonnay would. Lean Unoaked Chardonnay is going to be lighter in body and cleaner in taste than oaked Chardonnay. Refreshing While oaked Chardonnay can sometimes be heavy and rich, unoaked Chardonnay is quite the opposite. What does unoaked Chardonnay taste like? What about structure? Medium Body Think of that weight as a liquid scale, from water light body to heavy cream full body in your mouth. Unoaked Chardonnay is going to be generally medium bodied lighter than oaked Chardonnay in most cases.
Medium Plus Acid You can judge acidity based on whether your mouth waters after you take a sip of something. The more you salivate, the higher the acid. Unoaked Chardonnay generally has medium to high acid usually more acid than oaked Chardonnay. Oak can influence alcohol so unoaked Chardonnay is generally lower in alcohol than oaked Chardonnay.
It falls around medium. Where is unoaked Chardonnay from? France Primarily in Chablis Chablis is the northernmost region of Burgundy and it is known for Chardonnay only. Sadly, it is the oaky Chardonnays that have a higher price tag because oak barrels themselves cost much more than the steel ones, as they are harder to produce. Meet Kotti founder, Erkan Emre. Join us for a Virtual Tasting with the maker of the 1 selling Sicilian wine in the U. Join us for a Virtual Tasting. The Kunde family has farmed an 1,acre estate in Sonoma Valley for years.
Distinctive and hand-crafted wines produced from award-winning vineyards. Sales end Thursday, Dec 12 at pm! We are bringing together wine and food lovers since Facebook Twitter Instagram Search. Oaked vs. Previous Article Next Article. Great wine starts in the vineyard. June 12, June 12, At Your Home. Tenuta di Lilliano Virtual Tasting Very special tasting. April 18, April 18, Marlboro, NY. January 19, January 19, Riverhead, NY. Around The World In 10 Wines Experience a global tasting in 2 hours with award-winning artisan cheese and charcuterie.
The true key to successful wine tasting is tuning into your senses: sight, smell, and taste, in - Read More. However, one could argue that nothing is more essential to understanding wine than knowing what it tastes like. Wine tasting is - Read More. One plot of soil can produce a very different wine than the one next to it. A cool climate Chardonnay might taste of tart green apple or lemon zest. Meanwhile a warm climate Chardonnay may deliver tropical pineapple on your palate. A Chardonnay from Burgundy, Australia, Italy, and California will almost taste like different wine varieties entirely.
Only part of this is due to the region. The rest is due to the winemaking techniques. Because Chardonnay grapes are naturally high in acidity, and are so neutral in flavor, they lend well to aging. The strength of their structure and their fleshy texture allows them to stand up to oaking, as only few white wines can.
Oaking is the process of aging or fermenting wine in oak barrels, and the practice of oaking actually started by accident. Before oak, the main winemaking vessel was a clay amphora, which was exceedingly popular in Europe and West Asia up through the Roman Empire.
Clay was a wonderful wine vessel because it was airtight, but unfortunately it was also incredibly heavy and difficult to transport. Eventually the Romans came across the Gauls, who were using wooden barrels to transport beer. The Romans decided to try it for their wine. They determined that oak would be the best medium because it was not only plentiful, but soft and easy to bend into barrels. These lighter, waterproof vessels soon replaced the clay amphora in most of Europe, although the clay vessels are still used in Georgian winemaking today.
The Romans started to notice a change in the quality of their drink, after using these oak barrels to transport their wine for quite some time,. The wine had more flavor complexity and textural interest! How and how much oak affects the flavor and texture of wine depends heavily on the choices of the winemaker.
Wood is a porous material that allows the wine to be exposed to oxygen and varying temperatures. This permits the wine to go through a process known as malolactic fermentation MLF.
The process also creates the byproduct diacetyl. Diacetyl is what is responsible for the signature buttery flavor of oaked Chardonnay. It was also used to flavor movie theater buttered popcorn for years. The lactic acid only adds to this buttery effect by giving the wine a creamier flavor and mouthfeel. The longer Chardonnay sits in oak, the more buttery and oily it will become.
Flavors from the wood itself will also start to leech into the wine. What flavors these are depend entirely on the wood. For example, French oak imparts flavors of vanilla bean, savory spices, and smoke. Whereas American oak lends to flavors of vanilla extract, baking spices, and coconut. New oak barrels will more strongly affect the flavor, as will oak that has been toasted longer.
Smaller oak barrels will also affect the flavor more because of the higher wood surface to wine ratio. Neutral oak barrels, on the other hand, will only affect the mouthfeel and not the Chardonnay taste itself.
In general, an oaked Chardonnay will have a fuller body, lower acidity, and toasty, nutty, buttery, and even sweet notes. This dessert-like flavor and texture is what turned off so many wine connoisseurs in the 80s, when oaky was in. But Chardonnay grapes have many tricks up their sleeves, and so, the unoaked variety of Chardonnay started to gain popularity in the backlash against oak. It would almost be more apt to compare unoaked Chardonnay vs Sauvignon Blanc than vs oaked Chardonnay.
Unoaked Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc share a number of similar flavor profiles and textures, though the Sauv Blanc is a bit more acidic and vegetal. Unoaked Chardonnay is bright and crisp, with a lean mouthfeel that sits on the center of your tongue.
This is in stark comparison to its oaky sister, which covers the entire midsection of the palate with its robust, buttery texture. How is this distinctly different Chardonnay made? In stainless steel tanks. Stainless steel is impermeable, creating a space free from oxygenation or temperature fluctuations. This means the wine is blocked from malolactic fermentation, and the pure fruit character of the Chardonnay is preserved.
The resulting wine sings the pure song of its homeland. An ode to the soil and sanctuary of its birth.
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