By
eHow Food & Drink Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
Step1
Take some time to learn about styles of chardonnay. The country or state where the wine is produced makes a difference, influencing everything from growing conditions to style of winemaking.
Step2
Compare chardonnays from different regions. You'll notice that chardonnays from France tend to express fewer of the fruity characteristics of the grape but seek a balance between the nonfruit and fruit aspects, while California chardonnays tend to emphasize the fruit and rely on much more oak influence.
Step3
Find out about the effects of weather on different styles of wine. Grapes have a difficult time ripening during any season in Burgundy, which is France's major chardonnay-producing region. But California rarely sees a season when grapes don't fully ripen. Riper grapes yield more fruity characteristics.
Step4
A wine with a designated subregion is usually of a higher quality than one with just a general regional designation. Notice when a label says 'Carneros' or 'Santa Maria Valley,' for instance, instead of just 'California' or 'North Coast.'
Step5
Notice that some wines are labeled even more specifically, and see if you detect a higher-quality wine to go with the predictably higher price.
Step6
Remember the vintage, winery and any other label characteristics of the chardonnays you like, so you can find them again.