Last week, while in the midst of wine service at an event, a guest asked to summon the person responsible for pairing the wines, at which point, I introduce myself if they seem to be enjoying dinner, or the point in which discreetly I remove my nametag and lei.
Thankfully, this guest was effusive in her praise for the wine selections and grateful that I chose a white wine that wasn’t chardonnay. Chardonnay, in her opinion, was too buttery, and she swore off drinking that grape for years. What she didn’t know was that the wine I picked for that course was made with 100% chardonnay.
In last month’s column, I expounded on the virtues of trusting your own palate and the importance of knowing what you like and why you like it. This advice was meant to empower you to make your own decisions and ultimately increase your love of wine. Disliking a few examples of chardonnay and using it as an excuse to swear off the fifth-most grown wine grape in the world severely handcuffs your enjoyment.
Any decent sommelier will use these types of moments as opportunities to let the guest save face while gently educating them in a way that kindles their curiosity — and that’s exactly what I did.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the wine I had selected for her first course, a Champagne that she loved, was also made up of 100% chardonnay.
The Ojai Vineyard, Bien Nacido Chardonnay, Santa Maria Valley, California
Pour this for people who think all chardonnay from California is too buttery and oaky. While the grapes grown in the famed
Bien Nacido vineyard do take advantage of the California sunshine to provide ample, rich and creamy fruit, the intention at Ojai is to make natural wines, where “nothing is added, and nothing is taken away.” Winemaker/owner Adam Tolmach, whose grandfather owned property in Ojai since 1933, has been in the business almost four decades (and working with Bien Nacido fruit for more than three of them) and his devotion to great wine is evident with each balanced sip. His mastery isn’t limited to chardonnay.
To buy any wine from The Ojai Vineyard is to know you have one of the shining examples of its respective category at a steal of a price.
Cost: $25/bottle
Domaine Roland Lavantureux, Petit Chablis, France
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with David Lavantureux (son of Roland) recently and when our conversation was over, I wondered why I don’t drink his wine daily — it’s delicious enough to. Petit Chablis is his most affordable bottle, but also the one I would choose most often, even if price were equal. This 100% chardonnay is super minerally — as typical Chablis should be — reminiscent of sea spray and oysters (which happens to be a classic food pairing) and is both tantalizingly mouthwatering and surprisingly full-flavored.
Cost: $26/bottle
Chris Ramelb is an award-winning sommelier, and director of education and restaurant sales manager of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits of Hawaii. Listen to him on the “Wine & …” podcast, and follow him on Instagram (@masterisksomm).
