Big, buttery, and oaky wines, specifically California Chardonnays, are being pushed aside as cleaner, crisper wines are becoming the style of choice. Why the change? Well, there could be a number of reasons why people are shunning any white wine that has come anywhere near oak. One reason could be that the market has been completely saturated with this particular style of wine for the past two decades or perhaps it is as simple as the wine industry is changing, just like any other industry would naturally do. Now don’t get us wrong, we love a good oak-aged Chardonnay paired with roasted chicken in the middle of winter but the fact of the matter is that it’s scorching hot out and all we can think about is something refreshing. If you think for the summertime your only option for vino refreshment is a flavorless Pinot Grigio, think again! There is a huge selection out there of wines that have been fermented in stainless steel, including Chardonnay and a few reds, which achieve that desired crisp style but still maintain their character.

Before we just hand over a list of some of our favorite steel fermented wines, we need to put on our Bill Nye the Science Guy hats and help everyone understand it is not Chardonnay’s fault that there is this assumption that they are all the same; it’s more a result of the vintner and the fermentation process. When a wine is aged in oak barrels a few things happen besides imparting an “oaky” taste into the wine. Oak can add tannins, that thing that dries out your mouth more commonly found in red wine, which adds some structure to the wine as well as vanilla characteristics. The wine is also susceptible to malolactic fermentation. This process can occur naturally during fermentation or can be induced by the wine maker, by adding the bacteria Leuconostoc. Either way, this basically means that the harsh malic acids (commonly found in green apples) is converted to lactic acids (found in milk products) thus leaving the wine with that “buttery” and dairy-like quality. Some like this style and some hate it.