Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor, Author at Food Wine and Flavor

Chardonnay: The Three Decisions That Explain Everything

by Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor | May 26, 2026 | California, Chardonnay, Expand Your Palate, United States, Varietals, Wine

You can taste the same grape and think you are tasting entirely different wine. That is Chardonnay.

No other white grape shows as much variation across winemakers, regions, and styles. A Chablis and a Napa Valley Chardonnay share a grape and almost nothing else. Understanding the mechanism behind that range is genuinely useful — not because you need to know the chemistry, but because three simple concepts explain most of what you will ever taste in a white wine glass.

The First Decision: Oak

Oak is the most visible variable in Chardonnay. Fermentation or aging in oak barrels — especially new French oak — introduces flavors the grape itself doesn't have: vanilla, toast, butterscotch, and spice. New oak is more pronounced; older barrels contribute texture without heavy flavor. Stainless steel adds nothing at all, leaving only the fruit and acidity to speak.

The question worth asking of any Chardonnay is: how much oak, and how old? A wine labeled "unoaked" or "no oak" tells you directly. Otherwise, taste for vanilla and toast — their presence and intensity give you the answer. Heavy oak on an entry-level wine often means the wine was built around the oak rather than the fruit. In better bottles, oak is present but integrated, a structural element rather than a flavoring.

The Second Decision: Malolactic Fermentation

Malic acid is the sharp, crisp acid in green apples. Lactic acid is the soft, round acid in milk. Malolactic fermentation — MLF — converts one into the other. Almost all California Chardonnay goes through it. Chablis does not, or does so only partially.

This single decision accounts for the textural difference most people notice between Old World and New World Chardonnay. Wines that have completed MLF are rounder, creamier, and softer on the finish. Wines that have not are leaner, more precise, and more directly refreshing. Neither is correct — they are different stylistic intentions.

The word "buttery" in Chardonnay is almost always describing MLF, not actual butter. A compound called diacetyl, produced during the fermentation, creates the perception of creaminess. Some producers deliberately cultivate it. Others manage MLF to minimize it, retaining more freshness. The spectrum matters more than the label.

The Third Decision: Lees Contact

After fermentation, spent yeast cells settle to the bottom of the tank or barrel. Leaving the wine in contact with those cells — aging sur lie — adds weight, texture, and a subtle yeasty, brioche-like complexity. Stirring the lees periodically (bâtonnage) distributes that richness further. It is a technique used in Muscadet, in white Burgundy, and in premium California Chardonnay.

Lees contact is why the best California Chardonnays feel substantial in the mouth without tasting heavy. It creates structure from within rather than from oak. Extended lees aging also tends to improve aging potential — that textural depth holds the wine together over years in the bottle.

Reading the Glass

With these three variables in mind, tasting Chardonnay becomes a diagnostic exercise rather than a passive experience. Toast and vanilla: oak presence, probably new barrel. Butter and cream: MLF, likely complete. Brioche and weight: lees contact, extended. High acidity and lean texture: no MLF, probably stainless steel, possibly Chablis-style.

None of these are good or bad. They are choices the winemaker made, and the wine is showing you those choices. That is the point of learning to taste.

Thursday: how all three decisions show up on the plate — and why a warm artichoke and burrata dish puts California Chardonnay exactly where it wants to be.

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Post Created: May 26, 2026

You Don’t Have to Finish the Bottle

by Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor | May 25, 2026 | Mindful Drinking, Savour the Good Stuff, Service and Storage

One of the most common reasons people drink more wine than they actually want is this: they feel like they have to finish the bottle.

The logic is familiar. You opened it. It'll go bad. Wasting it feels wrong. So, you pour another glass, and then one more after that, in a kind of dutiful march to the bottom of the bottle that has nothing to do with enjoyment.

"Don't waste it" is one of those inherited ideas that sounds responsible but produces the opposite of what you're after.

What it actually produces: drinking faster than you want to. Drinking more than you want to. Pouring with your eye on the bottle instead of on the glass in front of you.

There's a simple fix, and it costs about nine to eleven dollars.

A wine preservation tool — a vacuum pump stopper, a small inert gas spray, even just a good-quality wine stopper — changes the whole psychology of the bottle. When you know the wine will be fine tomorrow, or the day after, the urgency disappears.

You pour what you want. You drink what you pour. You actually taste it.

The bottle stops being something to finish and becomes something to return to — which is exactly how wine is supposed to work.

This is the last piece of the puzzle I've been building this month. We've talked about why you're drinking (Week 1). We've talked about pairing wine with food to slow down and notice more (Week 2). We've talked about using contrast to develop your palate (Week 3).

This week is about removing the external pressure that overrides all of that.

You don't need more wine. You don't need better wine. You need the freedom to stop when you want to.

When you remove the pressure to finish, something interesting happens: you start to actually enjoy what's in the glass. Because you're there for the pleasure of it, not the completion of it.

Something I hear often from students, after we've worked through all of this together: I drink less now, but I enjoy it so much more.

That's the whole point. Not restriction. Not rules. Just the freedom to be present with what's actually in the glass.

If that sounds like something you want to explore further, watch for our next Monthly Table — it's where we go deeper, together.

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Post Created: May 25, 2026

California Chardonnay: What the New World Did with a French Grape

by Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor | May 24, 2026 | California, Chardonnay, Expand Your Palate, Wine, Wine Regions

The same grape. A different set of decisions.

Chablis and California Chardonnay are both Chardonnay — but the similarities mostly stop there. Where Chablis is angular, mineral, and unoaked, California Chardonnay is generous, layered, and built for richness. Understanding how one grape produces such different wine is the most useful thing you can learn about white wine.

Here is what actually matters: Chardonnay is a blank slate. It carries very little inherent aroma of its own — no grape-forward perfume the way Riesling does, no herbaceous signature the way Sauvignon Blanc does. What it does have is structure: good acidity, a neutral canvas, and the ability to carry whatever the winemaker and the climate put into it. That neutrality is a feature, not a weakness. It means Chardonnay reveals place and process more than almost any other grape.

California gave it sun, oak, and time on the lees. The result is the style most people think of when they think of Chardonnay.

What Shapes California Chardonnay

Three winemaking decisions account for most of the difference between a lean California Chardonnay and a rich one — and between California and Burgundy.

Oak aging is the first. Fermentation and aging in new French or American oak barrels adds vanilla, toast, and spice. The longer in barrel, and the newer the barrel, the more pronounced those notes. Some producers use no oak at all — the wine stays in stainless steel and expresses pure fruit and acidity. Others use a percentage of new oak, or older barrels that add texture without heavy flavor. The spectrum is wide, and the label rarely tells you exactly where a wine sits.

Malolactic fermentation is the second. Most California Chardonnay goes through this secondary fermentation, which converts sharp malic acid (the acid in green apples) into softer lactic acid (the acid in milk). The result is the buttery, creamy texture that defines the California style. Wines that skip it are crisper and more angular. It is the single biggest contributor to that rich, round mouthfeel.

Lees contact is the third. Leaving the wine in contact with the spent yeast cells after fermentation adds weight and a subtle yeasty, brioche-like complexity. Extended lees aging — called sur lie — is common in premium California Chardonnay. It is also why the best California Chardonnays age well: that textural depth holds the wine together.

Where It Comes From

Sonoma County produces the widest range. The Russian River Valley is the benchmark for cool-climate California Chardonnay — fog rolls in from the Pacific most mornings, holding temperatures down and preserving acidity. The wines are more structured and precise than you might expect from California. Sonoma Coast stretches further toward the ocean and runs even cooler. Carneros, which straddles Sonoma and Napa, sits in the path of bay winds and produces wines with natural freshness.

Napa Valley runs warmer, and the Chardonnay reflects that — richer fruit, more body, more immediate generosity. The wines can be impressive, though they tend toward opulence rather than restraint.

The Central Coast covers a long stretch of California from Monterey to Santa Barbara, with significant coastal influence cooling the vineyards. Chardonnay from Sta. Rita Hills and the Sta. Maria Valley tends toward elegance. Monterey's wines often show a distinctive green apple and herbal quality from the strong marine layer.

How to Choose

Entry level ($15–25): Most California Chardonnay at this price point is good, straightforward, and oak-influenced. Look for Sonoma County or Central Coast on the label rather than a very generic California designation.

Mid-range ($25–45): This is where appellation specificity starts to matter. Russian River Valley, Carneros, or Monterey on the label tells you something about the style. The wines become more interesting.

Premium ($45+): Single-vineyard wines from producers with a clear point of view. The oak and lees work is more sophisticated — present but integrated. Worth the investment if you want to understand what California Chardonnay can be at its best.

One practical note: a wine described as "lightly oaked" or "unoaked" or "Chablis-style" will be leaner and crisper. A wine described as "rich" or "full-bodied" or simply priced above $30 from a warm appellation will likely be the fuller California style. Neither is better — they're different. Knowing which one you're buying is the actual skill.

What to Expect in the Glass

Color is deeper than Chablis — golden rather than pale straw, sometimes almost amber-gold in heavily oaked versions. Aromatically: ripe apple, pear, melon, sometimes tropical fruit like mango or pineapple. Oak-forward wines add vanilla, butterscotch, toast, and a creamy note. In the mouth, the texture is the story — round, full, soft acidity, lingering finish.

This is a wine built for food. The richness that can seem heavy on its own becomes purposeful alongside something with fat and depth. Thursday's pairing shows exactly what that means.

Read next:

Tuesday: The three winemaking decisions that explain why Chablis and California Chardonnay taste nothing alike. Chardonnay: The Three Decisions That Explain Everything

Thursday: Warm Artichoke & Burrata Plate — and why the pairing works from three different angles. Warm Artichoke & Burrata Plate with California Chardonnay

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Chardonnay: The Three Decisions That Explain Everything

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Post Created: May 24, 2026

What to Order: Pad Thai, Spicy Thai Food, and Gewurztraminer

by Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor | May 21, 2026 | Alsace, Expand Your Palate, Food, Pairings

This week's pairing involves takeout. No recipe, no mise en place, no Dutch oven. You call the restaurant, you pick up the order, you open a bottle of Gewurztraminer, and you learn something about wine pairing that most people never quite believe until they experience it firsthand.

Spicy food and wine are not natural allies. Most wine — particularly red wine — is made worse by heat. Tannins taste harsh alongside chili. High acidity reads as sharp. The bitterness in certain grapes becomes aggressive when it meets capsaicin. The common advice is to drink beer with spicy food, and for most wine, that advice is correct.

Gewurztraminer is the exception. It is one of the handful of wines — off-dry Riesling is another, Viognier a third — where the characteristics of the grape actually improve in the presence of heat. Understanding why makes the pairing feel less like a lucky accident and more like something you can replicate intentionally across cuisines.

The Chemistry, Briefly

Three things happen when you drink wine alongside spicy food. First, capsaicin — the compound responsible for chili heat — amplifies the perception of tannin and acidity on the palate, making tannic reds taste harsh and high-acid whites taste sharp. Second, sweetness or the perception of sweetness moderates capsaicin — it literally reduces the sensation of heat. Third, fat in the mouth (from coconut milk, from peanut oil, from the proteins in the dish) softens everything and makes the wine's texture more prominent.

Gewurztraminer addresses all three simultaneously. It has essentially no tannin (it's a white wine). Its acidity is soft — low enough that capsaicin does not amplify it into sharpness. Its fruit concentration is high enough to read as lush and slightly sweet even in a technically dry bottle, which moderates the heat. And its aromatic intensity — lychee, rose petal, ginger, spice — is in direct conversation with the lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime that define Thai cooking.

The result is a pairing where both things improve. The food tastes less aggressive. The wine tastes more complete. That is the sign of a pairing that is working.

What to Order

Pad Thai is the anchor dish for this pairing — and if you are ordering one thing to demonstrate the logic, this is it. The sweet-savory-sour balance of tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar, the richness of egg and peanut, the heat from dried chili flakes, and the freshness of lime and bean sprouts create a complex flavor profile that Gewurztraminer meets at almost every point. The lychee and ginger in the wine echo the sweet-spiced character of the sauce. The soft acidity does not fight the tamarind. The body holds up against the richness of peanut and egg.

Photographically, Pad Thai is also the most striking dish on a Thai menu — the noodles give texture and height, the garnishes (lime wedge, crushed peanuts, fresh bean sprouts, a scatter of scallion) give color contrast, and the warm orange-gold of the dish mirrors the deep gold of Gewurztraminer in the glass. If you are going to set the bottle and the bowl side by side, this is the pairing that photographs.

Green curry is the second choice. The coconut milk base softens the heat and creates a creamy richness that Gewurztraminer's body can accompany. The lemongrass and kaffir lime in the curry echo the wine's floral-citrus aromatics. Order it at medium heat — very high heat in a curry will push even Gewurztraminer toward its limits.

Tom kha gai (coconut soup with galangal and lemongrass) is arguably the best pairing on the menu if it's available. The aromatic base of the soup — galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime — is in almost perfect alignment with the wine's own aromatic profile. The coconut softens the acidity. The result is seamless in a way that feels remarkable for a wine-and-takeout pairing.

Spring rolls and dumplings with a dipping sauce work well as starters alongside Gewurztraminer — the mild richness of the wrapper and the savory-sweet filling are a natural fit.

What to Avoid Ordering

Very sour dishes — som tum (green papaya salad) in its more acidic versions can make the wine read as flabby. The salad's acidity overwhelms Gewurztraminer's relatively soft acid structure.

Extremely high heat — if you order very hot (5-star heat at most Thai restaurants), the capsaicin level will push past what any wine handles gracefully. Moderate heat — 2 or 3 stars — gives the wine the best chance to show what it does.

What to Drink

A dry or lightly off-dry Alsatian Gewurztraminer is the first choice. Entry-level bottles in the $18–25 range from a reliable producer deliver the full aromatic profile — lychee, rose petal, ginger — without the richness of a VT expression that would be too much for a casual takeout meal.

Serve it cool — around 10°C. It will warm slightly in the glass over the meal, which is fine; the aromatics open as the temperature rises toward 12–13°C. Do not serve it cold-cold, straight from the fridge, where the aromatics close down and you lose the quality that makes the pairing work.

Join the conversation — and tell us what you ordered — in our community: Expand Your Palate: One Sip at a Time.

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Post Created: May 21, 2026

The Aromatic Whites of Alsace: A Framework for Everything We’ve Covered

by Anne Kjellgren @ Food Wine and Flavor | May 19, 2026 | Alsace, Expand Your Palate, Wine Education

Three weeks is a long time to spend in one region. It is also, for Alsace, barely enough.

What we have now, after Riesling and the different sweetness levels, the Pinots, SGN, and Gewurztraminer, is a working framework — a set of reference points that lets you walk into a wine shop, find the Alsatian section, and make a deliberate choice rather than a guess. That is the goal of these three weeks. Not memorization. A framework.

Here it is, as plainly as possible.

The Four Noble Whites — When to Reach for Each

Pinot Blanc — reach for it when the occasion is simple and the food is mild. Aperitif service. Light first courses. Mild cheese. Any moment when you want a pleasant, food-friendly white that does not call attention to itself. Best value in the Alsatian lineup. If you are new to the region and want an entry point that will not challenge or polarize, start here.

Riesling — reach for it when precision matters. When you want the wine to cut through richness, when the food has mineral or acidic notes that a more generous wine would blur, when you are tasting deliberately and want something that rewards attention. Also the grape to seek out when you want to explore the sweetness spectrum — from bone-dry to SGN, Riesling covers more ground than any other Alsatian variety.

Pinot Gris — reach for it when dinner is rich and substantial. Roasted pork, duck, mushroom-forward dishes, aged cheese, anything with fat and depth. The fullest-bodied dry white in the Alsatian lineup. Remember: not Pinot Grigio. The name is similar; the wine is not.

Gewurztraminer — reach for it when the food is aromatic and complex. Spicy Thai, Indian curry, Moroccan tagine, Chinese aromatic preparations. Also for Alsatian classics: Munster cheese, foie gras, tarte flambée. The most distinctive aromatic profile of any white wine grape — lychee, rose petal, candied ginger — and the most polarizing. People tend to love it or find it too much. The only way to know which side you are on is to try it.

The Sweetness Overlay

All four noble varieties can appear as Vendange Tardive or Sélection de Grains Nobles. The sweetness spectrum runs across the entire region, not just Riesling. When buying, the same rules apply: look at the producer's style, check the back label for residual sugar if it's printed, and when in doubt ask your wine merchant.

For everyday drinking and food pairing, dry expressions of all four grapes are the starting point. The VT and SGN versions are for specific occasions — and they are worth knowing.

The Blend: A Note on Edelzwicker and Gentil

Something I have been tasting alongside this three-week arc: an Alsatian white blend.

Edelzwicker — the traditional Alsatian blend — is made from two or more of the region's varieties, and it is historically the wine of everyday Alsatian life. The noble varieties in a blend behave differently than they do alone: the Riesling's acidity structures the Gewurztraminer's generosity; the Pinot Blanc's softness rounds the whole thing. What you often get is a wine that is more immediately accessible than any of the individual components at the same price, and more interesting than its humility suggests.

Gentil (the regulated version of Edelzwicker, requiring at least 50% noble varieties) is where the style becomes genuinely worth seeking out. A good Gentil is one of the best-value Alsatian whites in a shop.

What to Take From Three Weeks in Alsace

The region rewards the investment of time in a way that a single week cannot demonstrate. Spending three weeks with it — following the grapes from the clean precision of Riesling through the richness of Pinot Gris to the extravagance of Gewurztraminer — gives you a map of what white wine can be across a wide range.

It also gives you a set of purchases you can make with genuine intention. When you see an Alsatian Riesling on a restaurant wine list, you now know what it is and what food it belongs alongside. When you see Gewurztraminer and the menu has a Thai-spiced dish, you know why that works. When a wine merchant recommends an Alsatian Pinot Gris with the rich braise you're planning, you understand why they're right.

That is the only goal. Not expertise. Not memorization. A framework that makes the next purchase a little more deliberate.

The aromatic whites of Alsace are now part of yours.

Join the conversation: Expand Your Palate: One Sip at a Time