The 20 Best Chardonnays For Every Budget
From oaky and buttery to bright and citrusy.

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Chardonnay is one of the most popular grape varieties in the world, and for good reason. It thrives in most environments and can be manipulated by winemakers to impart many different characteristics and flavor profiles. This means chardonnays vary widely in taste, aroma, and price.
Our top picks
What is chardonnay?
Chardonnay is a white grape variety grown around the world. It's particularly popular in the Burgundy region of France, Washington, California, Oregon, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. It is also one of the three main grape varieties in Champagne, so you'll find it growing in that French region, too.
What does chardonnay taste like?
Not every chardonnay tastes the same. "The methods that influence the dramatic flavor differences in chardonnay involve fermentation in either oak or steel, creating three main types of flavor profiles," said Sandra Guibord, author and CEO and founder of Sandra’s Wine Life, a wine-education website. "Big oaky and buttery, lightly oaked, and unoaked."
Chardonnay is also heavily influenced by the terroir, or the region, geography, elevation, and climate it is grown in. For example, a chardonnay grown in rocky soil by the sea might have more minerality than a chardonnay grown further inland.
Is chardonnay dry or sweet?
Chardonnay is typically a dry wine, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any sweetness to it at all; it means fewer residual sugars are present. But other factors can affect whether a wine is dry or sweet. Often, the presence of fruity notes and what material the wine was aged in can influence a wine's sweetness. Because we often associate fruit with sweetness, when we pick up on this in wine, we perceive the wine as sweeter. When a wine is aged in oak, it can extract sugar compounds from the wood, creating a sweeter flavor.
How we chose these wines
We tapped the expertise of some food-industry folks to find out what chardonnays they like. We included varieties that fit all budgets and cover all the common chardonnay flavor profiles. Here are the best chardonnays you need to try.


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