It’s been an encouraging decade for pink chardonnay, a variety of grape that has spent the last seven years receiving a growing amount of official recognition. In 2018, Chardonnay Rose became an officially-recognized variety of French wine, which paved the way for it to be more widely grown and studied. Seven years later, the same grape received another official sign of approval: as VinePair’s Olivia White reports, the Comité Champagne recently gave its OK for this grape to be used in making champagne.
As you may recall, champagne isn’t a catch-all term for sparkling French wine; instead, that sparkling wine needs to be made under a specific set of criteria. As VinePair’s reporting indicates, this latest decision makes pink Chardonnay the eighth type of grape that can legimately be used in champagne production.
Besides the difference in flavor, there are other reasons why this variety of grape appeals to winemakers. Aaron Lange of the winery LangeTwins provided a good rundown in comments made to Wine Enthusiast earlier this year. “Those pink skins seem to be a little more durable, less prone to rot and perhaps less prone to sunburn for those heat events that are predicted to increase in frequency for the foreseeable future,” Lange said.
The Comité Champagne’s announcement describes this grape as “a natural mutation of white Chardonnay,” and notes its similarity to white Chardonnay in terms of its taste. “It presents a certain freshness in the wines, but it is above all the story it tells that makes it unique,” the organization noted. The growing acceptance of this grape suggests that it’s about to get more widespread — which means you may soon see it appear more often at a wine shop near you.
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