In our cellar Chardonnay is made three ways: for still classic Chardonnay, a reserve, and the more complicated Spumante.

These three wines are picked to their according days based on acidity and sugar content, measuring what will be its end alcohol level. Earliest pick is for the sparkling wine, or Spumante, made from 100% Chardonnay and usually picked at least two weeks before the classic Chardonnay. This gives it an intense acidity. The grapes are picked in the cool hours of early morning, brought to the cellar, pressed immediately and put into a steel tank with cooling equipment. The next morning the clear juice is racked off the sediment at the bottom into another steel tank where it is promptly inoculated to start fermentation. Fermentation is kept cool (to keep it long and extract as many flavours as possible) and once finished the wine is racked off of the lees at the bottom and put into a new steel tank. From that steel tank the wine has a sugar addition and is put into sparkling wine bottles with a “crown cap” (like that of a beer) except before the cap is put on a small plastic piece is inserted to catch the sediment from the bottle before the crown cap is taken off and a sparkling wine cork is inserted. This process is called disgorging, where the bottle has been rotated to acquire sediment over around 20 days, the neck of the bottle is frozen, the cap is removed, and a new cork is put in. Because we use the TrentoDOC style of sparkling wine making the procedure lasts 18 months on the lees in the bottle, and after that the cork can be placed in.

A couple weeks later the Classic Chardonnay is picked and goes through basically the same process as for the sparkling wine but once fermentation has finished it is divided into new tanks of steel, wood, and ceramic. After seven months in those tanks the wine is blended together, filtered, bottled, rests one month, and is finally ready to drink!

Chardonnay Reserve is a buttery, California style of Chardonnay much more full bodied and creamy, standing up to more intense dishes. This wine is picked at the same time as the classic but fermented in oak barrels, once finished fermentation it is racked into a new oak barrel where it will rest for a full year. After that it is filtered and bottled, where it will then wait another 6 months before sale.

Chardonnay has a loved and hated stereotype in the wine world, but I think it is fun to see it made in so many different ways to see what the grape can really do!