There may still be an Anything But Chardonnay (ABC) club, but this much beleaguered white is enjoying something of a revival as wine-makers begin to use less oak and make lighter versions. With tasting notes varying from tropical to heavy oak, lemon, grass, melon and apple, chardonnay is nothing if not varied.

Most commonly, it is paired with white meat such roast chicken and turkey, and, provided it’s not too heavily oaked, fish. It also tends to go very well with aged cheeses such as camembert.

Give it a try: The head chef at Café Du Pass at Franschhoek’s Protea Hotel, Ashwin Ehlers recommends that Franschhoek Cellar’s unwooded Our Town Hall Chardonnay be partnered with his honey-glazed chicken salad, combining crisp granny smith apples, with pecan nuts and farmhouse cheddar cheese.

Franschhoek Cellar’s wine-maker Richard Duckitt says, “The fresh fruit tones found in this unwooded chardonnay strongly compliment the apple and fresh rocket. The flavour of sweet honey on the chicken strips is carried through to the ‘sweet’ marmalade flavour in the wine, but the salty cheese and pecan nuts delicately breaks the sweetness on the palate to create a flavour sensation!” 

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