The category of unwooded chardonnays is growing – how seriously are winemakers taking this style, and how seriously should we? Ingrid Motteux looks into it.

Wine commentators seem particularly fond of applying clichéd female archetypes to grapes and the wines they make. Pity poor chardonnay then, described by the Burgundians due to its blowsiness and fecundity as the whore of the vineyards. Also considered exceedingly compliant in the cellar, with an anything-goes attitude, she seems unfazed by how she’s treated: having her lees stirred (or not), happy to ferment cool or warm, cosseted in oak or naked in a steel tank.

After which, she may be either banished to a darkened room to grow old in bottle, or sold off in adolescence as a part of sweetly embracing Brand Chardonnay. Even if the great potential quality of the grape does not always come through, chardonnay is the greatest varietal success story of modern wine. However diverse the handling and outcome, it is undeniably easy to pronounce, to sell, to drink and to understand.

More educated consumer markets have led a backlash against overoaked New World chardonnays, with the more militant of the ABC (‘anything but chardonnay’) brigade dismissing the variety altogether. No wonder then the fairly recent developing taste for lightly oaked or altogether unwooded chardonnay around the world. In South Africa it has been available since De Wetshof introduced the Bon Vallon at the start of the 1990s. Now Platter lists many dozens of examples – though nowhere near as many as the wooded versions involving new and older barrels, staves in tanks, and woodchips.

Australian winewriter Jeremy Oliver may refer to chardonnay in its unoaked guise as ‘that tragic spinster of modern wine’, but the New World was responsible for initiating the new wood fermentation and maturation craze. Oak was useful in Burgundy’s history as a suitable container, not as a flavourant, though new barrels certainly play their part in the grander wines of the Côte d’Or. The Chablis area of Burgundy, however, is the prototype of essentially unoaked chardonnay: the wine was traditionally fermented in old vats before being transferred into old 132 litre feuillettes until bottling the following spring. (Nowadays the effects of new wood are being increasingly sought in Chablis by many of the less traditional vignerons.)

It is probable that for many lovers of chardonnay, the main characteristic of such wines is, in fact, the flavour of oak. But made without wood influence, which potentially gives a truer expression of fruit, the essence of chardonnay should be readily recognisable in the aromas and flavours of crisp green apples or pears, peaches and other stone fruit, along with citrus fruit – lemon, limes, grapefruit, orange blossom – and a bit of pineapple.

Getting an overview

So it was with the tasting of local unwooded chardonnays we held recently. What we were after was not a rating of all the wines available, but an overview; to see what local winemakers were doing in this area. We selected a group largely at random, but trying to get a cross section in terms of origin (from Constantia to Robertson) and price (from Van Loveren at R20 to Steenberg at R55; the latest vintage of Bouchard Finlayson’s much more expensive example was unfortunately not available.)

The wines we tasted were made in a fairly restricted style. All were classified dry, with the exception of the Louisvale with a residual sugar of six grams per litre, though some were certainly less emphatically dry than others. Yield and lees contact appeared to be the main factors distinguishing style, with the wines from obvious high-yield fruit lacking the weight and concentration of the better examples. Angela Lloyd felt that the residual sugar helped to lift the fruit in the wines where concentration was lacking. Most had spent a few months on the lees, ensuring wines with more texture and dimension.

Philip van Zyl pointed out that the majority of the selection were for easy drinking rather than pondering or keeping. All agreed that these were best enjoyed young and fresh, a year or two from harvest. Attractive fruit quality and lack of potential to offend made Cathy Marston believe that these wines offered a good introductory style for novice wine drinkers. Tim James was also enthusiastic about the style, particularly in contrast to a sauvignon blanc line-up in the same average price category of R35: ‘I like these wines. There are very few I wouldn’t be happy to drink with or without food.’

A wine’s versatility with food is crucial to Cathy Marston, whose Nose Wine Bar serves a wide range of dishes. ‘I’m increasingly reluctant to recommend sauvignon blanc when people are wanting something crisp and dry’, she says, ‘– it buggers up the food!’ She adds, ‘Here are wines that are lemony flavoured and fresh, but not overpowering – they also have the structure to hold their own alongside food.’

At last a wine that promises even to be a good foil for eggs? Some people find the flavour of unwooded chardonnay just the thing for an omelette, as oak tends to impart an unattractive bitterness. And for Peter Finlayson of Bouchard-Finlayson, oak can often be an unwelcome guest when partnering chardonnay with seafood and shellfish.

Second-string chardonnay?

Interestingly, an unintentional inclusion in this tasting was a wooded Groote Post. All immediately recognised the anomaly, and liked the wine – it was the top scorer. Which in the most concrete way possible raised the question: is it the case that chardonnay really benefits from wood? Or could it be that the fruit used by winemakers for their oaked versions is the best they have? Tim James expressed his concerns about the apparent ‘second bestness’ of unwooded chardonnays: ‘How many wineries apart from Bouchard-Finlayson attempt to make a seriously good unwooded chardonnay?’ Probably not many.

Jeremy Borg felt, however, that this question of second best didn’t apply exclusively to the unwooded category, ‘There are a fair amount of poor, thin wooded chardonnays kicking around too.’ He’d like to see Hamilton Russell Vineyards making a serious model that improves with age. Borg ventured to predict that a really good example would have to be made in barrel (older, and without flavour) instead of steel, because of the extra texture, complexity and dimension barrels impart.

Although it might appear to be a market niche for leftover grapes rather than a winemaker’s quest, Peter Finlayson uses the same Kaaimansgat fruit for both styles: ‘It is not an easy wine to make as it can too easily be bland. It needs to be treated with respect in order to best express the fruit.’ (More the princess than the strumpet then?) Good fruit is essential for the task of carrying wood well, but fruit would also have to be suitably fine to stand alone, with no veneer of oak to hide behind.

A revealing story comes from Jordan Winery. Chardonnay’s yield variability ensures the odd bumper crop, as happened at Jordan in 2003, when they used the grapes excess to their normal requirements to make an unwooded wine. It sold very well – so much so that Kathy Jordan ruefully admits that it has returned to bite them on the bum, as a demand for the style has been created, but they do not always have enough grapes for both styles.

Wine-drinkers’ expectations

If we continue to make more of these pleasing, if not ultra-sophisticated wines, will they sell? Borg asserts that there’s definitely a sizeable market for unoaked chardonnay, ‘Many people would like to drink chardonnay, but don’t want a mouthful of wood.’ But, someone wondered out loud, won’t some people be disappointed by the lack of smokiness and toastiness they have come to expect from a chardonnay? Marston, though, thinks there will be fewer such people than there are those let down by injudicious use of oak.

What do wine-drinkers perceive as unwooded? Squeaky clean reductive stainless steel treatment with no hint of buttery malo, or a more laissez faire ‘without obvious oak’? The problem of confused expectations might be solved by more specific labelling, as unoaked or unwooded is not always indicated on the label. The default situation seems to be that behind a non-prefixed chardonnay label is wine with wood influence (be that barreled, staved or chipped). As a marketing issue, Borg would want to make it very clear on the label if the wine was unoaked.

Whatever aspirations the category has – brief titillation of consumer palates or something more ambitious or demanding, the variety in all its forms still has a significant following around the world (as Bridget Jones would testify). Jeremy Borg has been looking closely at the United States wine market recently; he points out that one of every four bottles of wine sold  retail there is chardonnay. Imported chardonnay rose by 17% (mostly Australian) and grocery stores alone sold some 13 million cases in 2004.

Chardonnay, then, remains a hugely important variety here and elsewhere. If unwooded versions can win back some sceptics from the ABC camp (and can have a moderating effect on the oaky excesses of the wooded versions), that is all to the good. Our overview suggests that South Africa is producing many very drinkable wines in the category, but what is needed is some greater ambition from the producers, for an infusion of real excitement.

THE WINES

The wines in our line-up received final scores in a fairly narrow range (around three stars) – partly because of the averaging effect of the panel tasting. For this reason, and because the point here was to get an overview rather than provide a list of recommendations, we are not giving a ranking. We tasted (all 2004):

•           Asara Chardonnay Unwooded

•           Backsberg Camp Chardonnay

•           Beaumont Jackals River Chardonnay

•           Constantia Uitsig Chardonnay

•           Danie de Wet Chardonnay Sur Lie

•           Danie de Wet Limestone Hill Chardonnay

•           De Wetshof Bon Vallon

•           Inglewood Chardonnay

•           Jordan Unoaked Chardonnay

•           Kleine Zalze Chardonnay (Cellar Selection)

•           Louisvale Unwooded Chardonnay

•           Meerhof Chardonnay

•           Rustenburg Brampton Chardonnay

•           Steenberg Unwooded Chardonnay

•           Van Loveren Chardonnay
•           Weltevrede River's Edge Chardonnay

Tasting panel

Jeremy Borg Wine marketing consultant

Tim James Grape

Angela Lloyd Grape

Cathy Marston Proprietor, The Nose Wine Bar, Cape Town

Philip van Zyl Editor, John Platter Guide

Thanks to producers for submitting their wines, and to the Wine Cellar in Observatory for hosting the tasting.