(Wines&Vines) - To be considered by customers, restaurants and distributors, many wineries include at least one Chardonnay on their wine list. The variety has a number of clones and can be grown reasonably successfully in climates from warm to hot to cool. With its mild flavors, Chardonnay wines can be made in a range of styles. So it comes as no surprise that Chardonnay is a popular topic at wine conferences. This year’s Eastern Winery Exposition, held March 8-10 in Lancaster, Pa., included two winemaker roundtable discussions about Chardonnay: one covering the “elegant, fresh” style, and a second about the “rich, full-bodied” style. A third session looked at Chardonel, a New York hybrid of Chardonnay and Seyval, that is similar in flavors to its Chardonnay parent, while being easier to grow, more cold tolerant and often more productive. 

Roundtable No. 1: elegant, fresh-style Chardonnay

Three winemakers spoke at the first Chardonnay winemakers’ roundtable about the fresh, elegant style: Juan E. Micieli-Martinez, winemaker and general manager at Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead, N.Y.; Shep Rouse, winemaker and owner of Rockbridge Vineyard in Raphine, Va.; and Thomas Bachelder, who makes wine in Oregon, Niagara, Ontario, and Burgundy, France, as part of his Trois Terroirs project.

Micieli-Martinez noted that eastern Long Island has a maritime climate, which he believes is getting warmer, and that makes it easy to grow grapes for the most part (a major exception is rain and hurricanes during harvest). Martha Clara Vineyard’s Chardonnay grapes are estate-grown, although in years with poor fruit set, the winery has purchased fruit grown in New York’s Finger Lakes region.

He commented that his goal for the winery’s Island Series Chardonnay is “a fruit-driven, stainless steel-fermented wine highlighting ripe Chardonnay characteristics and a touch of creaminess. I want the fruit to be balanced with mouth-watering acidity.” He believes some of the creaminess on the palate comes from sur lie aging (three to four months) and sometimes a gram or two of residual sugar for added richness. Throughout the winemaking process, he tries to reduce the amount of oxygen contact and to minimize movement of the wine. Micieli-Martinez bottles the wine in late spring and prefers to bottle-age the wine a minimum of six to nine months before release.