(Wines&Vines) - After more than a decade on top, Chardonnay continues to dominate varietal wine sales in the United States, accounting for 21% of volume in 2011, vs. 12% for second-ranking Cabernet Sauvignon. Introduced to California by Ernest Wente, who planted cultivars in his family’s Livermore vineyards in 1912, this “noble” grape now is grown in North American appellations from coast to coast. It also has been reviled for enological oversteps. An ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) movement took hold in the 1990s in reaction to hard-hitting, heavily oaked examples modish during that decade.