Maligned by so-called 'ABC' (Anything-But-Chardonnay) drinkers, and much abused by producers who for decades have produced overripe, overly-buttery, over-oaked, over-just-about-every-everything examples that have turned much of the public off to the variety, Chardonnay nevertheless, remains the undisputed king of white grapes. In the right hands, it is a blank canvas on which masterpieces can be laid, examples which novelist Alexandre Dumas declared should be "drunk on bended knee, with head bared."