Another One Bites the Dust???

Debated in doing this whole blog in the style of an obituary but figured that would be a bit morbid... and obviously a little bit premature! Wine, like anything else, follows trends... i hate to admit it, but its true. No where is this more true that with our old friend Chardonnay... ah yes Chardonnay! It was the apple of so many eyes there for a while, and now its seems like you have to physically make people try some... but recently I've noticed some people not only picking up 1 or 2 different Chardonnays.... but some have even come in and bought half cases of Chardonnays from different regions.... (if you were one of those people and you were wondering why i was looking so pleasantly surprised then hopefully this will answer some questions for you) At first I simply ignored this anomaly... No No it couldn't be making a little come back! I use to say to myself as i wrapped up the bottles and bagged them.

But then (as i would do most days) i was checking to see if there was any interesting wine news out there (cause sometimes an blogger like myself needs some inspiration!) and all these articles started popping up about New Zealand Sauvignon's.... but not in the way I had come used to! The changes were slight, but definitely there! Instead of critics raving about this new wine from the Marlborough region- they were looking a bit like reviews of the last the last few seasons of Friends; ya they're still kinds funny, but would they not think of doing something new?

And all this started me thinking again about Chardonnay... and how people used to like it.... And before i knew what had happened I couldn't stop thinking about Chardonnay's fall from grace. Basically it was a victim of its own versatility- too readily available, too easy to grow, and much too popular for any dishonest wine producer to not bottle and sell of cheap. All of a sudden the supermarket shelves, the restaurants, and even some wine shops were flush with all this Cheap Chardonnay! Now I'm not saying you have to spend a load on your Chardonnay! Far from it- you can actually get some pretty good ones around the €10-€15 mark, But (and we saw this with the Ernest&Julio Gallo Pinot Noir Scandal) there are some producers out there who simply want a profit, and they don't care how they get it! So all this bad Chardonnay inevitably started putting people off the stuff... but they had to drink something! So why not move to the complete opposite end of the spectrum- BOOM! Sauvignon Blanc!

Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that Sauvignon Blanc is going to become the new Chardonnay... but all I'm saying is be careful if you don't want to ruin it for yourself! Because there are still a lot of people out there who want to make that quick buck. It may even have started happening... I'm not naming names... cough Cloudy Bay cough cough! but a certain well know New Zealand brand just finished in the bottom few wines at a blind tasting in New Zealand.... Hmmmm! I hate to say it... but maybe 5 years down the line will people be put of Sauvignon completely???