White grape

Chardonnay

shar-doh-NEH
How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.

Chardonnay, the Burgundy white that DNA markers show is a cross of Gouais Blanc and Pinot, is a parent of Liliorila, admitted in Bordeaux in 2021, and is grown by a few Gironde estates profiled on this site.

Chardonnay is the white grape of Burgundy. José Vouillamoz, co-author of Wine Grapes, gives its first mention as 1685, in Saône-et-Loire, and takes the name from the village of Chardonnay in the Mâconnais. DNA markers show that it is a cross of Gouais Blanc and Pinot: John Bowers and colleagues published the finding in Science in 1999, with Gamay Noir and 14 other grapes of northeast France as its siblings. VIVC lists the pedigree as confirmed by markers.

Chardonnay enters the Bordeaux family tree as a parent of Liliorila, crossed with Baroque by Pierre Marcel Durquety at INRA Bordeaux in 1956 and admitted to AOC Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur on March 22, 2021. Chardonnay itself is not on the grape list of AOC Bordeaux, in the 2021 rules or in the 2026 draft. It still grows in the Gironde. In 2012 it stood in an INRA trial plot of 52 grapes in the Bordelais (Louise Durand, 2012), and today 3 estates on this site give it: Château Laffitte-Carcasset in Saint-Estèphe and Château Clarisse in Puisseguin, both since 2020, and Clos Dubreuil in Saint-Émilion for its white wine. In February 2026 Château du Tertre, in Margaux, unveiled Alba by Tertre with the négociant Ulysse Cazabonne: a white Vin de France from a 2.5-hectare plot at the heart of the estate, just under half Chardonnay in its 2024 vintage.

Oldest record in my library: “chardenet de la Champagne”, 1816, in André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus; “Le chardonnay”, 1828, in B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne (Saône-et-Loire); near Bordeaux, Louise Durand, INRA trial plot in the Bordelais, 2012

The family

Gouais Blanc shown by DNA markers

Chardonnay

Liliorila shown by DNA markers

  • Bowers et al. 1999, Science 285:1562-1565; VIVC 2455
  • VIVC 6834 marker pedigree (breeder record agrees)

The discovery: In 1999, Bowers and colleagues (Science 285:1562-1565) showed Chardonnay to be a cross of Gouais Blanc and Pinot.

In today’s rules

Not named in the rules of any Bordeaux appellation today.

Stands out at

Sources

  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, passport id 2455 (Chardonnay Blanc) and passport id 6834 (Liliorila), accessed October 2026
  • Bowers, J. et al. (1999), 'Historical genetics: the parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay, and other wine grapes of northeastern France', Science 285:1562-1565
  • José Vouillamoz, 'The Powerful Potentates of the Grape World: Noiriens and Carmenets', Wine Grapes lecture 2, Wine Scholar Guild, September 17, 2023
  • Arrêtés of March 22, 2021 homologating the cahiers des charges of AOC 'Bordeaux' and 'Bordeaux supérieur', JORF March 30, 2021
  • INAO, cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux (opposition draft after the CNAOV opinion of November 18, 2020; homologated March 22, 2021), ch. I, V.1 a, https://winewitandwisdomswe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Cahier-des-Charges-AOC-Bordeaux-updated-November-2020.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • INAO, draft cahier des charges AOC Bordeaux adopted by the Comité national on February 12, 2026 (national opposition procedure, not yet homologated), ch. I, V.1 a, https://extranet.inao.gouv.fr/fichier/2-CDC-Bordeaux2026.pdf, accessed October 2026
  • Louise Durand, Mise en place d'un protocole de traitement de données pour l'étude de l'adaptation d'une large gamme de cépages aux évolutions climatiques en Bordelais (master's thesis, 2012), Figure 8 and annex, https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-00772947v1
  • Bordeaux Reviews, château profiles
  • André Jullien, Topographie de tous les vignobles connus, 1st ed., 1816
  • B. A. Lenoir, Traité de la culture de la vigne et de la vinification, 1828
  • Colin Hay, 'Château du Tertre partners with Ulysse Cazabonne to launch “iconoclastic” white blend', The Drinks Business, March 9, 2026, https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2026/03/chateau-du-tertre-partners-with-ulysse-cazabonne-to-launch-iconoclastic-white-blend, accessed October 2026 (the text gives Chardonnay as just under half of the 2024 blend, the tasting note 46%)
  • Röckel et al. (2026): Vitis International Variety Catalogue, www.vivc.de, accessed October 2026

Every grape

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