From Altitude to Attitude: 3 Reasons to Love Cool Chardonnay

The rebirth of cool is kicked off today in Niagara, as the world’s top cool climate chardonnay producers gather together with wine lovers to celebrate the grape.

The seventh annual International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration (mercifully i4C) will showcase 120 chardonnays and 59 winemakers from Canada, the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Some 30 wineries are from Ontario alone.

There’ll be tastings, brunches, dinners and fun events such as “Flights” of Chardonnay at the Niagara airport, The School of Cool and do other crazy things to reaffirm their love of this style of chard.

So why don’t you re-frame that nasty acronym “Anything but Chardonnay” (ABC) to All Beloved Chardonnay?

 

From altitude to attitude, what are the 5 elements of “cool”?

altitude

latitude

maritime influence

climate

winemaking style (I’ve re-dubbed this attitude ;)

 

Still need a reason to love cool climate chardonnay? Here are 3 of them:

 

1. Acid Tripping: Cool Chardonnay offers racy, mouth-watering acidity that refreshes the parts that other wines cannot reach.

2. Mineral Mining: Trying to figure out what minerality tastes (or feels) like? Pour yourself a glass of cool Chardonnay and let your taste buds dig it.

3. Trend Bucking: When they go high (climate), we go low. Thrill on the chill.

 

 

The Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration (i4C) runs July 21 to 23

This is the first year that Quebec is participating: Coteau Rougemont and Domaine Saint-Jacques as well as Uruguay: Familia Traversa.

Saturday tasting events at various wineries and the fancy evening gala entitled Cool Chardonnay World Tour and Dinner at Ridley College, with both cool chardonnays and cool-climate red wines like Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Gamay Noir.

For those who don’t sleep in, Sunday offers the Moveable Feast brunch at Ravine Vineyard in Niagara-on-the-Lake as well as three-course brunch at Redstone Winery.

Some 2,500 guests are expected to attend this year.

www.coolchardonnay.org

 

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