T hose who were drinking white wines in the late 1980s and early '90s will remember the virtual tsunami of heavily oaked "butter bomb" style Chardonnays that swept the world. Living in London at the time, I couldn't tell whether sea levels were rising or the entire country was sinking under the weight of the millions of imported cases of Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay. A particularly popular example of that style of winemaking, this Chardonnay undergoes a so-called "secondary fermentation" that creates the strong flavor of butter.

As this butter-bomb trend reached what many considered were extreme levels of self-parody, a backlash developed, with some people going so far as to claim that henceforth they were only going to drink "ABC" (Anything But Chardonnay). Others reserved their scorn "ML" (malolactic fermentation), the secondary fermentation technique that the butter-bomb houses touted as a key to their success.

Even today, it is still common to hear people say, "I don't drink ML wines," despite the fact that this technique is centuries old, and is, unbeknown to its critics, used on nearly all of the world's reds, and most of the greatest whites.