It’s getting harder to find affordable old-school oaky chardonnays like this one

Francis Coppola “Diamond Collection” Chardonnay

California

$13.99 13.5% alcohol

PLCB Item #6756

Sale price through Aug. 3 – regularly $16.99

Chardonnay is the most famous white wine grape on earth by a mile, in part due to the extraordinary range of styles in which it can excel. It reliably produces generous crops and pleasant tasting wine in almost any climate, and its wines are richer in texture than other whites, allowing vintners to boost its flavor and concentration with oak barrels, a technique otherwise reserved for red wines.

Cool climate chardonnays, like those from northern France, can taste as tart and brisk as biting into a fresh apple without feeling thin or sharp on the palate. Warmer climate chardonnays from hotter, sunnier places like Napa Valley are more likely to be given some aging in oak, which gives chardonnay a vanilla-tinged flavor and creamy texture, as if a holiday eggnog had been brightened.

This diversity can make it hard for shoppers to figure out which style to expect from any given chardonnay on the shelf. Generally speaking, those who prefer leaner, drier chardonnays should look to Europe, while fans of stronger wines will love the plump and fruity California style.

That said, most affordable California chardonnays are now leaning toward the lighter, brighter unoaked style, so even within California, it’s harder to predict which will have more of the old-school “oaky” flavor profile of roasted nuts and chai spices.

But wines like this one that are bottled in darker glass with label color schemes that evoke a pumpkin pie are a good place to start: A reliable bottling from filmmaker Francis Coppola’s winery is one of the few in its price range that still in the richer, more decadent style popularized in the ’80s and ‘90s.