I’ve been blogging about chardonnay, sometimes serious, sometimes irreverent, sharing my reviews and perspectives on my favorite varietal with you for a while now. If you know the story about how I got the nickname “Chardygirl”, you know it came from Australia nearly four years ago and it’s stuck ever since.
You see Australians shorten everything. Breakfast is “brekkie” (and yes, you can actually find that on menus and restaurant signs). Sunglasses are “sunnies” and tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, construction workers) are “tradies.” And if a name can’t be shortened, it gets changed altogether. A sweater is a “jumper,” a car trunk is a “boot,” and my husband, Gary’s name is “Gazza.” Go figure.
We just spent four weeks in Australia and I heard that term, “chardy,” used over and over again. In Dan Murphy’s, the local wine and spirits store which is the Australian equivalent of a Total Wine or Bev Mo, I heard staff members pointing me to the chardy section, asking others if they had recommendations for a good buttery chardy or telling me the regions for the best chardies (Margaret River, Yarra, and Limestone Coast).
At the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show, they had a whole class devoted to tasting chardies only. The instructor was kind enough to point me to the best chardy maker in the country for that good, old-fashioned chardonnay (and yes, we will be tasting and reviewing “Butterfingers” very soon.)
Even the Wine Selectors guy in the Sydney airport called them chardies. (Next time you are in the Melbourne or Sydney domestic airport terminal, you too, can kill time tasting the best Australian wines from boutique wineries for free by visiting the Wine Selector booth in the middle of the terminal.)
But it never occurred to me that you, my dear readers, might not understand why the name “Chardy Girl.”
So now you know. It’s Australia speak for chardonnay. I wonder if Napa would shudder at the thought?