The Autumn 2022 print edition of Club Oenologique is out now – with a focus on Chardonnay.
Oft maligned, sometimes misunderstood, the grape’s reach extends from the celebrated, nuanced names of Burgundy to the increasingly refined renderings of Australia. Yet it’s a variety that has been shunned and pilloried in some quarters, while even its most devoted fans would concede that it is far from en vogue.
As Jasper Morris MW documents in his lead feature, ’50 Shades of Chardonnay’, however, the nuances of flavour of which it is capable – even in a region as small as Burgundy – are without equal. So how and why does Chablis differ from Chassagne, Meursault from Montrachet?
We also take in celebrated renderings of the variety in South Africa, California and Champagne as we explore Chardonnay’s appeal and identity today – from the revived old names of Napa to an astonishingly ambitious project in the Cape. And Essi Avellan MW, Sarah Marsh MW and Huon Hooke are among the experts casting their expert noses over a range of fine offerings in our Review section.
Look out too for a focus on the seemingly unstopppable growth of Irish Whiskey, as Joel Harrison chronicles its turbulent journey to whisky’s top table, picks out the top examples on the market today, and undertakes an astonishing vertical tasting of arguably the most celebrated bottling, Midleton Very Rare.
Elsewhere, Victoria Moore and Richard Hemming MW offer insights into how tech is impacting the wine world, from fighting fakes to opening up the metaverse; Nina Caplan takes a tour of Mornington Peninsula; and George Reynolds asks whether vegan food and fine dining can happily mix. Plus there’s a photo essay from a New Zealand winemaker who swapped his secateurs for a camera.
