How can I know which Chardonnays have not undergone malolactic conversion?!
How can I know which Chardonnays have not undergone malolactic conversion?
After a recent visit to Napa, I discovered that I don't dislike all Chardonnays. I learned about malolactic conversion while there and discovered that without that buttery/oak taste I liked the wine much better. Trouble is, I can't seem to find this on any labels. If it says 'no oak' does that mean it likely also hasn't had the conversion? Does one just have to know which have or have not undergone the conversion? Is it a fact that in the older, traditional sense, Chardonnay did not undergo this process? Thanks for any help!
Answers:
Buttery flavors and oaky flavors are have two different causes, so I'll discuss them separately.
I'm going to disagree with an previous answerer because I agree with you that the fat buttery flavor in Chardonnay is usually the result of malolactic fermentation (actually not fermentation, but a bacterial action that happens either naturually or is induced deliberately) sometime after alcoholic fermentation is complete.
Malolactic fermentation (often shortened to malo) -- as the name suggests, changes malic acids into lactic acids. And since the definition of the word lactic is "of or pertaining to milk" you can see the connection with a butter taste.
The Oxford Companion to Wine says "Malolactic fermentation may reduce the acidity of a particularly ripe wine unduly and care must be taken that the amount of the buttery-smelling DIACETYL produced by the process is not unpleasanly excessive."
Its definition of Diacetyl is "a product of malolactic fermentation with a powerful butterscotch or butter aroma."
So, to avoid buttery flavoured Chardonnay you need to avoid ones which have had malo. But doing that is not that easy, since information about malo doesn't usually appear on wine labels.
Oaky flavor come from oak. This can be barrels in which wine is fermented in, or aged in, or can be induced by adding staves or wood chips to steel tanks.
Chardonnay -- especially California Chardonnay seems to frequently be made with both malo and oaking, so if you want to buy California Chardonnays a careful study of back labels is needed, looking for wines which are said to taste crisp and don't mention oak. But if, as it seems, you prefer crisper sharper wines you might well be much better advised to look for Sauvignon Blanc wines.
If you want Chardonnay - then look to France and Chablis in particular. That is the home of Chardonnay and is made there usually without oak and in a very crisp steely dry manner. It is a much cooler area than California and the wines are leaners and sharper as a result.