If you have never tried Chablis wine (from the namesake region of Burgundy), you owe it to yourself to try it.  From the Chardonnay grape, the wine delights with aromas and flavors that make you think that the California version is a separate variety. 

There are seven grand crus of Chablis, producing the top of the line wines: Blanchot, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Les Preuses, Valmur and Vaudesir.  While each sub-region of offers its own nuances, these wines tend to be mouthwatering crisp, clean and lemony with perhaps hints of peach, floral elements and an outstanding balance of acidity and mineralilty.  They’re often described as wines with great finesse and can include scents of wet stone, sea salt, beeswax, honey and even iodine.  Chablis owes its steely character to its northern clime and the geology of the soils, the vines planted in crumbled fossilized chalk, marl and limestone deposited by an invading sea nearly 140 million years ago.

The wines can be fermented and stored in either stainless steel containers or older wood casks.  Most now undergo some degree of malolactic fermentation to soften the edges of what thirty years ago was a wine with bracing acidity, hard edges and closed up for years.  Top Chablis also offer significant aging potential, the years softening the edges just a bit without destroying the clarity, vibrancy and energy of the wine.