Chardonnay

Chardonnay arose in Burgundy through a natural medieval crossing of Pinot Noir and the humble Gouais Blanc, confirmed by DNA analysis published in 1999. The name is generally thought to come from the Mâconnais village of Chardonnay, though the grape's fame long ago outgrew that single village to define the white wines of Chablis, the Côte de Beaune, and Champagne, where it's a core blending grape and the sole variety in Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine.

Its genetic neutrality — a blank canvas that readily reflects both terroir and winemaking choices like oak aging and malolactic fermentation — helped drive an extraordinary global expansion in the late 20th century. California's "Golden Chardonnay" boom of the 1980s and 90s, built on ripe, buttery, heavily oaked styles, made it briefly the most fashionable — and eventually, for some drinkers, the most over-exposed — white wine in the world, a reputation the grape has spent the 21st century recalibrating toward more restrained, terroir-driven styles.