Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make
white wine. It is believed to have originated in the Burgundy
wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine
is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new and
developing wine regions, growing Chardonnay is seen as a
"rite of passage" and an easy segue into the international
wine market.[1]

The Chardonnay grape itself is very neutral, with many of
the flavors commonly associated with the grape being derived
from such influences as terroir and oak.[2] It is vinified
in many different styles, from the elegant, "flinty" wines
of Chablis to rich, buttery Meursaults and New World wines
with tropical fruit flavors.

Chardonnay is an important component of many sparkling wines
around the world, including Champagne. A peak in popularity
in the late 1980s gave way to a backlash among those wine
drinkers who saw the grape as a leading negative component
of the globalization of wine. Nonetheless, it remains one
of the most widely-planted grape varieties, with over 400,000
acres (175,000 hectares) worldwide, second only to Airen
among white wine grapes and planted in more wine regions than
any other grape – including Cabernet Sauvignon.
For much of its history, a connection was assumed between
Chardonnay and Pinot noir or Pinot blanc. In addition to
being found in the same region of France for centuries,
ampelographers noted that the leaves of each plant have
near-identical shape and structure. Pierre Galet disagreed
with this assessment, believing that Chardonnay was not
related to any other major grape variety. Viticulturalists
Maynard Amerine & Harold Olmo proposed a descendency from a
wild Vitis vinifera vine that was a step removed from white
Muscat. Chardonnay's true origins were further obscured by
vineyard owners in Lebanon and Syria, who claimed that the
grape's ancestry could be traced to the Middle East, from
where it was introduced to Europe by returning Crusaders,
though there is little external evidence to support that
theory. Another theory stated that it originated from an
ancient indigenous vine found in Cyprus.