One of my favourite wine stories is that of the woman who exclaimed to her friends “I don’t understand why the young all want to drink Chardonnay! Give me a nice dry Chablis any time!” Her friends were too polite to tell her that the grape in Chablis is Chardonnay.

I like it because it reminds me how easy it is to make a fool of yourself talking, or writing, about wine; and because it raises so succinctly the most interesting question you can ask about a wine – what makes it taste like this? How is it that wine made from the same grape, using similar methods, in Puligny-Montrachet, just 125 kilometres to the south of Chablis, tastes so different? Chablis is like steel compared to Montrachet’s butter.
Continue reading It’s all Chardonnay →