And what about Australian chardonnays? It’s not easy to answer that question, at least not in the United States. Wine stores may still be selling tankers-full of cheap Australian junk wines labeled chardonnay, but wines from more serious producers, who are growing chardonnay in cooler climates more conducive to subtly expressive wines, are difficult to come by. At four of the best wine shops in Manhattan, I recently was able to find a grand total of one bottle of Australian chardonnay that might be considered above the level of Yellow Tail and other commodity wines.

With so little available to challenge the stereotype of Australian chardonnays, it lingers in the minds of many Americans. Yet the stereotype is well out of date. I haven’t been to Australia, but I know from professional tastings, from books and periodicals and from speaking with people in the Australian wine trade that Aussie chardonnay has undergone a stylistic evolution similar to California’s.

Image No. 1: Moorooduc Estate Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay 2011 Credit... Dan Neville/The New York Times

We know something similar has occurred with Australian red wines. We also know that but for a trickle that makes it to our shores, much of the more subtle, graceful Aussie red stays in Australia.

With this in mind, I asked our tasting coordinator, Bernard Kirsch, to scour his retail sources around the country for Australian chardonnays from cooler climates. He managed to assemble a tasting for the wine panel of 20 bottles of chardonnay primarily from cooler climate regions like Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne, Margaret River in Western Australia and Tasmania.