Being from wine country, I often get questions about wine when I’m visiting other areas of the country—location an expert makes me, I guess. Hands down, though, the most common wine people ask about is Chardonnay.

As with any varietal, each bottle will present differently depending upon terroir, vintage conditions, winemaking practices, and a gazillion other variables. But Chardonnay is one varietal that shows an unusually broad range of character, which can make it especially difficult to pair.

The way I get my arms around Chardonnay wines is to split them into three basic categories: Big and Buttery, Lean and Clean, and Complex. Here’s a look at what those mean and how choosing wisely between the three can make for sublime wine and food pairings.

Big and Buttery
We all know this style of Chardonnay. It’s the classic California drinking wine—often made with the Clone 4 Chardonnay grape that is indigenous to Sonoma County and a lover of our warm, sunny summers. These wines have toasty notes from being aged in oak and a smooth, butterscotch mouthfeel and flavor from malolactic fermentation. These bad boys are bold, and are best enjoyed on their own or with a fairly blank canvas of flavors so as not to compete with the power of the wine. Think roast chicken with herbs, or pasta with a creamy walnut sauce. It is, however, a good idea to pick one characteristic of the wine to match or contrast with a similar food component. Toasted nuts to accentuate the oaky notes, for instance. Or lemon zest to counteract the wine’s buttery richness and connect with the acidic zing of the finish.

Wines to Try: Clos du Bois Chardonnay

Lean and Clean
The first time I tasted an unoaked Chardonnay, I mistook it for a super fruity Sauvignon Blanc. There was a brightness to it that threw me for a loop, but what a delicious loop it was. Unoaked, or naked, Chardonnays are fermented in stainless steel and aged either in the same (i.e. stainless steel barrels) or in neutral-oak barrels (i.e., older barrels whose toasty characteristics have dissipated), giving them a clean, intense fruit flavor (often likened to biting into a Granny Smith apple) that is hidden in heavily oaked Chardonnays. Depending upon whether or not they’ve gone through malolactic fermentation, they can be smooth and silky or crisp and bright. To my mind, there is no match more regal for these Chablis-style wines than the humble oyster. The crisp, briny, creamy notes of the bivalves seem to dance with this type of Chardonnay.

Wines to Try: Morgan Winery Metallico Chardonnay

Complex
I’m sure there are all kinds of ways to interpret “Burgundian-style,” but to me, it connotes a well-crafted wine that unfolds in the glass and on the nose and palette like a sunflower opening petal by petal. These wines tend to be more vineyard-focused than winery-focused, so to speak, in that they’re meant to capture the essence of an appellation and are often hand crafted from a variety of different clones. Once the grapes are crushed and the juice is fermented, these wines run the gamut on how much and how long they’re aged in oak and how much of the wine is put through malolactic fermentation. The red thread, for me, is that these wines are delightfully complex in flavor and texture, and should be paired with care in order to make the most of their unique qualities. Not to blow the horn too many times, but the shrimp and mushroom fettuccine and Calcaire match is a perfect example of how a Complex Chardonnay can sing like Alessandra Coletti when paired well. I also adore this type of Chardonnay with fresh Dungeness crab dipped in lemon butter and truffle salt . . . oh my, I’m getting hungry.

Wines to Try: Clos du Bois Calcaire, Rudd Bacigalupi Chardonnay