Chardonnay takes its name from a hamlet in the Mâconnais, and its blood from Burgundy too: DNA has shown it to be a natural cross of Pinot Noir and the near-forgotten Gouais Blanc, one of a large family born of that same union. Neutral-berried and adaptable, it is the winemaker's blank canvas — a grape that speaks less of itself than of soil, climate and cellar.
Hence its two faces. In the cold Kimmeridgian marls of Chablis it is steel, oyster-shell and lemon; on the limestone of the Côte de Beaune, barrel-fermented and aged on its lees, it becomes the richest dry white in the world. It is also, with Pinot Noir and Meunier, one of Champagne's grapes, and the sole grape of Blanc de Blancs. Easy to grow and endlessly obliging, it has become the most planted fine white variety on earth.