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Varietal: Chardonnay
Its adaptability to different soils and climates, and malleability in the wine room make Chardonnay one of the most popular and ubiquitous grapes. Responsible for some of the world’s most thrilling white wines wines including Champagne, it is in its homeland of Burgundy with villages such as Chablis, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet that producers craft arguably some of the world’s finest wines. Chardonnay is also synonymous with California, where it can display riper, tropical fruit flavors, rather than the more restrained stone fruit and steely, mineral qualities often associated with its Old World and cool climate counterparts. While there are terrific fresh and vibrant Chardonnays made solely using stainless steel, the grape also knits terrifically well with oak, lending greater depth and weight in the form of a nutty, toasty and somtimes buttery component.
Country: France
A country viewed by many as the home of fine wine, it is almost unique in terms of how embedded food and wine is in the nations culture. Given the diverse geography, with so much of the country providing the climate and soil suitable for viticulture, it is no surprise that its produces such an extensive and varied selection of wines. It is the country from where the vast majority of the New World's most popular "international" grapes and stylistic influences originate. While there might seem to be an alarming disparity between the most sought after wines (were a case might set you back as much as a deposit on a small house) and the millions of gallons of vin de table filling up the European wine lake every year, there is so much great value to be found between the two extremes. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and the Rhone may still dominate the market for fine wine, but regions including the Loire, Alsace, Languedoc & Roussillon and the South West are increasingly becoming excellent sources of good quality, affordable wines.
Region: Burgundy
Two hundred miles south east of Paris lies the famous and historic wine region, known in French as Bourgogne. The Cote d'Or, the heartland of the region, consists of two distinct sub-regions split on either side of the town of Beaune.The Côte de Nuits to the north, includes the famous villages of Vosne-Romanee, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Nuits-Saint-Georges and are known primarily for making red wine from Pinot Noir.Although The Côte de Beaune to the south still makes some magnificent reds (see Volnay and Pommard), white wine made from Chardonnay is the main focus. The most famous villages are Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault. Burgundy has three other important regions. The village of Chablis (exclusively Chardonnay) encompassing the region's most northerly vineyards. The Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais to south are quantitatively speaking more important. Agriculture is more diverse with a significant portion of the land devoted to livestock and arable farming.
Sub-Region: Saint-Véran
Saint-Véran is an appellation for dry white wines produced in the southern half of the Mâconnais sub-region of Burgundy. The appellation is split into two sections by the vineyards of Pouilly-Fuissé. Both lie in the chain of hills in which the much-photographed Rock of Solutré is situated.
The northern half is home to the communes of Davayé, Prissé and Solutré-Pouilly, the last of which may produce both Pouilly-Fuissé and Saint-Véran wines. The southern half comprises the communes of Chânes, Chasselas, Leynes, Saint-Amour and Saint-Vérand (from which the appellation gains its name). The final 'd' of Saint-Vérand was lost due to an administrative error when the appellation laws were being drawn up in 1971.
As the southernmost appellation of Burgundy, Saint-Véran overlaps slightly with the northern edge of Beaujolais. The commune of Saint-Amour, for example, produces white wines labeled as Saint-Véran alongside the fine red Beaujolais Cru wines for which it is more widely known.
Saint-Véran's output is largely composed of wine that, until the formation of the AOC, would have fallen under the Beaujolais Blanc title. The quality of the wines usually fall somewhere between those of the Mâcon-Villages and Pouilly-Fuissé appellations. The best can rival some examples from the latter.
All Saint-Véran wines are made exclusively from the Chardonnay grape variety. They are traditionally dry in style, yet more full-bodied than other white Burgundies. In their youth, they have floral aromas and notes of white stone fruit, developing into more honeyed, nutty aromas with age. The finest examples show a hint of pierre a fusil – the mineral, flinty aroma so prized in Burgundian white wines.
The climate in the Saint-Véran catchment area is slightly warmer than in most of Burgundy, due to its southerly location. Spring frosts, which so readily threaten vines in cooler Burgundy appellations like Chablis, are less of a danger here. The soils, while not as dominated by limestone as the slopes of neighboring Pouilly-Fuissé, have a fair proportion of chalky clay – particularly in vineyards lining the small Crosne and Arlois rivers.
Type: White
White wine is a wine whose color can be pale-yellow, yellow-green, and yellow-gold colored. The wine is produced from a variety of grape varieties. The flavor and color comes from the juice of the grape and sometimes the skin of the grape as well. Interestingly, not all white wine comes from white grapes. Some select red grapes are used as in Champagne.