Noble Stock .sx JOHN RADFORD TRACES THE ROOTS OF THE WORLD'S MOST POPULAR WHITE WINE GRAPE VARIETAL TO 936 AD AND A GAUL NAMED CARDO .sx EVERYBODY LOVES THE CHARDONNAY .sx UNLIKE MANY OF THE WORLD'S GREAT GRAPES , WHICH RETIRE INTO MEAGRENESS and moodiness , when transplanted from their native soil , the Chardonnay soldiers on undaunted , from the sandy plains of Llerida to the baking vineyards of Bilyara , the high-tech wineries of Sonoma to the experimental nurseries of Surrey .sx It's a noble variety in the best tradition of nobility :sx happy in all kinds of company , always willing to give of its best , and at home all over the world .sx The origins of the Chardonnay , however , lie in the tiny village ( population 163 ) of the same name , west of the N6 from Tournus to M a-circ con. The village , and the cave co-operative which occupies its 16th-century ch a-circ teau , celebrated their joint millenium in 1989 :sx a thousand vintages in an unbroken line , giving the distinct impression that the Chardonnay is certainly here to stay .sx In the earliest records , the village and the vines which grew wild among the local thistles are one .sx The Romans called the place Ager Cardoniacensis which is traditionally translated as 'the place of the thistles' , as carduus is the Latin for thistles .sx But the name could be derived from cardo , which means a pivotal or axis point , bearing in mind that M a-circ connais area occupies a strategic position between the Alps and the Rhine - something the Romans might have found quite important .sx Chardon , however , is the modern French word for thistle and the plant plays a major part in the local heraldry .sx In the third century what we now know as Burgundy was ruled by the Romans , but largely inhabited by the Celtic Gauls and the Germanic Franks .sx These people knocked each other about for a while but united to fight the Huns , eventually becoming a united kingdom in the sixth century under the first Frankish king called Clovis .sx The Franks had been nomads for centuries , but settled in the fertile pastures of eastern France and became farmers and herders , so it is likely that they would have been the first to domesticate the vine in a serious manner - and the first to give it a name .sx In those days , names - whether of people , places , or things - tended to consist of some descriptive or locational element , and it is quite likely that they referred to the vine as the one-from-the-thistles or something similar .sx The only written language in the sixth century was Latin , so one-from-the-thistles might translate as the genitive plural of carduus , which is carduorum .sx Interestingly , the locals would probably have still been speaking a Celto-Germanic dialect and might have called it the Disteler or something similar .sx The first written reference ( again in Latin ) is from the tenth-century Cartulaire de Saint-Vincent de M a-circ con .sx It records that the village and its church were given to the bishopric of Maimbod de M a-circ con between 936 and 952 by L e otald , Count of M a-circ con. Note the Celtic character of the names :sx the major French directory of place-names records that the village ( and its vineyards and , ultimately , its grape variety ) took their name from a Gaul named Cardo .sx Again , this is a Latin version of a Celto-Germanic name , and we can only conjecture as to what he was called locally .sx With the confusion between Cardo and Carduus , Latin , Frankish dialects and the Langue d'Oil it could have been anything from de Cardus to Distel ( no relation) .sx However , since , still , Latin was the only written language , the lands owned by this mysterious Gaul were known as those-which-belong-to-Cardo , and in Latin that's also expressed as the genitive plural cardonis .sx In this way , the thistle ( carduus ) and the pivotal point ( cardo ) become one .sx It is interesting that Cardo is described as 'a Gaul' in the French texts , especially since , by the tenth century , Burgundy had a fairly well integrated population with origins from northern Italy to the Rhine valley .sx Most of the Celtic Gauls had withdrawn to the west , so whether this was a lone Gaulish nobleman who moved in and founded the village , or whether his origins owe more to the philosophies of M Chauvin than to those of the historian , we shall probably never know .sx In any case between 956 and 986 the Cartulaire records a vineyard in the village , and by 1304 the local ruling family was headed by one Henry de Chardonnay ( indeed , in 1990 there is a Chardonnay family still living in the area) .sx Even taking the latest of the dates quoted by St Vincent , the vineyards of Chardonnay must have been in place by 986 , and so the vines would be comfortably mature enough by 989 to produce a full vintage .sx 'Yes , but,' I hear you cry , 'where did the grape actually come from ?sx ' I have a book from a German publisher which explains blithely that the Chardonnay is a mutation of the Rul a nder ( Pinot Gris ) which is itself a mutation of the Riesling which just goes to show that all great ( white ) grapes come from Germany .sx There are others who claim that it isn't a member of the Pinot family at all .sx I respectfully submit that both arguments are unprovable and irrelevant .sx Thanks to modern techniques of propagation , clonal selection and the like , the Chardonnay of 1990 is not necessarily even the same grape as the Chardonnay of 1970 , so what is likely to have happened in a thousand years ?sx The custom in those days was to plant what grew , and propagate it if the results were good .sx The prosaic truth is probably that the original Cardonni e-grave re was a fairly standard and unexciting wild grape , pollinated anemophilously each year and throwing up sports and mutations with every vintage .sx In the tenth century growing a vine was no more an exact science than growing a beard , and the vigneron , through a process of trial and error , reproduced vines in any way he could until the results fulfilled his expectations .sx The first written works naming the grape 'Chardonnay' - in French rather than Latin - didn't appear until around 500 years after the village's first vintage .sx Over those five centuries the villagers had had plenty of time to breed an average grape into a good one , and a good grape into a world-beater .sx Indeed , the Chardonnay's transplantability and versatility shows that it must have been hardy stock to start with ( like all good weeds ) and that the toiling Cardonians husbanded it very well indeed .sx By the 16th century , of course , the grape's fame had spread much wider than the borders of Burgundy :sx some of the local names it carries are evidence of its progress northward ( though not , strangely , southward until somebody discovered that the Ard e-grave che .sx .. but that's another story) .sx It's known as the Beaunois around Beaune , and the Aubaine in the Champagne-fringe vineyards of the Aube .sx In Chablis they used to call it the Fromenteau , ostensibly because the undersides of the leaves are the colour of wheat ( froment ) , but perhaps because , like the one-from-the-thistles , it once produced water-from-the-wheat .sx ..? Early in the last century , the fame of the white wines of Burgundy had spread to such an extent that noblemen from Spain and Italy , the Russias and the Far East , were importing vines to create their own vineyards , their own Puligny , their own Meursault .sx Later , Americans , Australians and others decided that their soils and climates were pretty good , and that Chardonnay was worth a try .sx Some succeeded better than others .sx The best are still with us today .sx Chardonnay , the village , is also with us today .sx It's still small , a good way from the main road , and dominated by the Ch a-circ teau de Chardonnay and the Ch a-circ teau de Montlaville , built in 1820 , which will shortly open as a private school .sx The village's own school closed last year , and its church only opens occasionally for weddings and funerals .sx The village laundry pool , however , still sees an occasional user , and there's a tiny park with a commemorative millenium statue which is bedecked with flowers in a riot of colours in the summer .sx The Ch a-circ teau de Chardonnay is mostly original :sx no manicured museum-piece but a working building housing offices and staff accommodation .sx It also has a big dog which barks loudly when the gate is locked and licks your hand when you actually go in .sx The winery is next door to the ch a-circ teau , with pallets and forklift trucks and all the prosaic equipment of modern vinibusiness .sx There are cars sporting Swiss and German number plates among those which pull up at the door to buy Chardonnay de Chardonnay at FF22,50 a litre and M a-circ con rouge for FF17,00 .sx The Cave Co-operative de Chardonnay has 135 members , of whom 70 actually supply grapes at vintage time :sx a total of 15,000 hectolitres ( two million bottles ) from 233 hectares of vines , 80% white and 20% red ( which are roughly half-and-half Gamay and Pinot Noir) .sx The red is simply M a-circ con Rouge and Bourgogne Pinot Noir , of course , but the white may be Cr e mant de Bourgogne , M a-circ con Blanc ( if it's from the co-op's members outside the village ) or M a-circ con Chardonnay ( if it's from inside the village) .sx With Bourgogne Pinot Noir , the epithet 'Pinot Noir' is the name of the grape ; in the case of M a-circ con-Chardonnay the epithet 'Chardonnay' is the name of the village :sx confusing , possibly .sx The co-op's M a-circ con-Chardonnay is called Ch a-circ teau de Chardonnay if it's made from grapes grown in the Ch a-circ teau's own vineyards , or Chardonnay de Chardonnay if it comes from elsewhere in the village .sx The wines , however , are very similar :sx the 1,000th vintage showed a crisp , wholesome nose with plenty of fruit on the palate , and yet backed by a certain old-fashioned backbone and character , with good length and lipsmacking finish .sx There is none of the voluptuous fruit and seductive up-front blandishment of New World Chardonnay .sx Under the hands of chef-caviste Claude Chevalier , the co-op ferments the must in stainless steel at low temperatures and holds the finished wine in neutral deposits - no oak .sx But apart from those concessions to modern methods , the style is very traditional .sx " Almost artisanale ?sx " I asked the co-operative's general manager , G e rard-Claude Pallot .sx He thought for a moment .sx " Rustique , " he conceded at length .sx " Chardonnay has been making wine for a very long time .sx We look at every new development but we always respect the tradition of the wine as it has been made in the past .sx And people seem to enjoy it .sx " .sx Walking back past half a dozen cars , their owners clamouring for a taste of the wine from the village which gave the world one of its greatest grapes , I had to reflect that he was probably right .sx White noise , White papers .sx CAN YOU TELL CALIFORNIA AND FRENCH CHARDONNAY APART ?sx THEIR MAKERS COULDN'T ALWAYS DO SO AT A 'FOCUS ON CHARDONNAY' CONFERENCE HELD RECENTLY IN BEAUNE :sx TIM ATKIN MET THE WORLD'S EXPERTS .sx LE BIEN PUBLIC WAS IN NO DOUBT :sx BURGUNDY WAS HAVING ITS HOTTEST SUMMER FOR YEARS :sx AS LOCALS CAVORTED half-naked in the fountains of Dijon , a group of internationally famous wine - makers met in Beaune to discuss the minutiae of the world's most celebrated grape .sx The occasion was the second Focus on Chardonnay , a week-long round of tastings , lectures , meals and vineyard visits .sx The first Focus was held four years ago at Sonoma Cutrer winery , when a group of Burgundians were invited to compare notes with their Californian colleagues .sx The event was an unqualified success ; hence the return match .sx The line-up of participants was impressive .sx Several Californians had made the trip :sx Dick Arrowood of Arrowood Vineyards ; Zelma Long of Simi ; Steve Kistler of Kistler Vineyards ; Dick Graaf of Chalone ; Bill Bonetti of Sonoma Cutrer ; Jed Steele of Kendall-Jackson and Jerry Luper of Rutherford Hill .sx The French also put out their best team :sx William F e-grave vre and Vincent Dauvissat from Chablis ; Thierry Matrot from Meursault ; Jean-Jacques Vincent from Pouilly-Fuiss e ; Louis Carillon , Vincent Leflaive and G e rard Boudot from Puligny-Montrachet ; Aubert de Villaine from the Domaine de La Roman e e-Conti ; and Bernard Morey from Chassagne-Montrachet .sx Would the Americans hold their own ?sx It was going to be quite a contest , with opinions crossing the room simultaneously in two languages .sx