Chardonnay Days
The heat is on for cool climate wine at i4C
I am interrupting my summer holiday with a quick note and wino service announcement on Chardonnay and the world’s foremost event dedicated to it. Regular MJWB programming will recommence next week.
The often muttered joke at i4C, the International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration, held annually in Niagara, is that it’s held over the hottest days of the year. The 2026 edition starts on Thursday, the 16th of July and runs through next weekend. Much of the programming is outdoors, or halfway, like the Friday NIght Flights event held in hanger at the local airport.
I will be sure to pack as much linen as I can, and prepare for perspiration. Not that I am complaining; there’s something about sultry summer heat that makes a cold glass of white wine, taken in slow sips all that much better.
i4C is hybrid event, that mixes wine professionals with amateurs, in the true sense of the word. The ‘School of Cool’ is a day long series of tasting lectures and seminars. The keynote speaker this year is Véronique Riveste, who writes the wine column in La Presse, chooses the wines for Air Canada’s business class cabins and runs the populaire and influential SOIF wine bar in Gatineau. From there, the events range from winery visits, to lunches, dinners and walk around tastings.
I try and go every year because it’s the best way for me to catch-up with as many Ontario winemakers as I can in concentrated period of time. But it’s a trans-national and international event, with wines and people who make them from BC, Nova Scotia, France, Italy, and as far as South Africa. All there to celebrate the mighty Chardonnay grape. Also, I really like Chardonnay.
It is not a coincidence that this week through next the LCBO Vintages program features a lot of Chardonnay made wines under the promotional banner of “Nothing But Chardonnay”. It’s a collection that’s a solid mix of local heroes and international stars, including the 30th vintage of the iconic Planeta Chardonnay from 2024 ($57). Planeta, like many of the featured wines, are past presenters at i4C.
The Planeta Chardonnay, is a good example of why I will always try Chardonnay, where ever I am, or from wherever it comes from. Jancis Robinson has written about how the grape can both make wines most susceptible to its environment, and therefor expressive of terroir, while simultaneously able to make wines most susceptible to the techniques of the cellar, and therefor expressive of a winemaker’s vision. I like to add that because it was particularly popular thirty or forty years ago, around the time Diego Planeta was planting it in Sicily, it’s relatively easy to find Chardonnay wines made from relatively older vines. It’s almost always a good bet.
WINE RECOMMENDATION
Podere Montale I Maremmani
Price: $20.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Podere Montale
Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany (Upper Maremma)
Appellation: Toscana IGT
Grapes: Chardonnay
Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%
Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre
Here’s a warm climate Chardonnay that’s a cool customer for $21. Podere Montale is a winery in Southern Tuscany sited on the slopes of Mount Amiata, an extinct Volcano about 50 kilometres south of Siena. It’s in one of Tuscany’s small DOCG appellations for Sangiove based wines (Montecucco), but if you look around any decent sized winery cellar, you’re bound to find a little bit of Chardonnay in a corner somewhere. And this Chardonnay, named for the local sheepdogs that adorn the label, has adapted itself to its Mediterranean habitat very nicely with a good hit of refreshing acidity.
I Maremmani has lovely grapefruit note that adds a touch of bitterness to anotherwise honeyed citrus character; it’s generally pretty lean. If you’re lucky enough to spend some of this summer in a bathing suit, then a glass of it might hit the spot before you switch to dry clothes for dinner. If your apero hour is more pedestrian, then a glass of the Maremmani Chardonay with a small bowl of olives while cooking dinner, would also be fine.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/la-rocca-srl-chardonnay-2024-49054
