What the !@#$%^&*!? has happened to California Chardonnay? (A rant)

[Randy Caparoso]

So all Chardonnays should be like Chablis? Try telling the vintners in Chassagne and Puligny that. There's no question in their minds that not only should Chardonnay be generously oaked, but with lots of new oak, too. Why? Because new oak happens to make their wines taste better.

There's no consistent measuring stick out there, gentlemen. We shouldn't begrudge anyone who is trying to not only make a Chardonnay taste better, but also more commercially appealing. And insofar as food, I can think of just as many dishes to go with a richly oaked Chard as a lightly oaked Chard. There's something out there for every dish, and every taste; and no single one "better" than the other.

Besides, I think you guys are overreacting. Seven weeks ago in my own town I sat on a small panel of professionals judging 136 commercially available Chardonnays (divided in three price categories) for a big event called Taste of Honolulu. Out of all of these, I think there were probably only about a dozen that one might technically (and objectively) call "over oaked" -- and even then, it was still a matter of taste. If anything, the problems (when they came up) was more of a matter of fruit depth, intensity and balance. But if anything, qualities derived from barrel fermentation, barrel aging, ML, etc. added, rather than detracted, from all that, filling out the gaps where they existed.

But if it's not for you, as Curmudgeon put it, that's why there's Sauvignon Blanc -- and Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, et al. Why knock Chard for being what it wants to be?