The £5 Chardonnay you should be drinking.
I got my friends to taste-test a £17 bottle of Chardonnay against a £4.50 bottle to see if they could spot the splurge. To my surprise, they preferred the bargain white.
To get nerdy: Chardonnay is the rose gold, Fiat 500, of white grapes. It was highly overproduced in the 90s when it was popular for being bland enough to go with anything. Thirty years on, it’s starting to make a resurgence by vignerons (wine makers) who are using it as a blank canvas to experiment on.
After finding a bargain on Bruntsfield Tesco’s most expensive offering, my friends (a variety ranging from wine lovers to wine newbies) blind tasted it against the cheapest. Both were made from the same type of grape but had very different flavour profiles. The more expensive Californian offering had been aged in Bourbon barrels, giving it a darker, smokier character with hints of passion fruit and white pepper. But it was the simpler, cleaner Taparoo Valley Chardonnay (Tesco’s), from Australia, aged in stainless steal tanks with American oak, that was preferred by my group of friends.
Ridiculously cheap, I feared it would be too bland and sweet to be interesting. Instead it was fresh and well balanced (not too sweet, not too acidic). It was served with a mushroom stew, but would go down a treat with chicken. I would argue it’s not interesting or hearty enough to drink by itself at pre drinks (“it feels like a wine you need to sip and savour” offered one friend), but it’s definitely a must for a casual dinner or even flat party.
“Wine selection” by Greg Pye is licensed under CC BY 2.0.