All About Wine And Its Goodness!

For those who are just starting to delve into the wonderful world of wine, you may find yourself confused by the vast variety of wines – whites, reds, blends, bubblies – and the multitude of choices within each of those broad categories. We’ll choose just one of those for this brief intro – white wines. We’ll give you a short tour of the most popular varietals (types of grapes), tell you what you can expect from each and what distinguishes them from each other.

 

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is definitely the most enjoyed white wine in the U.S. – in fact, it’s reportedly the only white wine many wine lovers consume. Chardonnay is often the first white wine a new wine fan will discover, largely because it is so “accessible”. Chardonnay is most often on the dry side, meaning not very sweet, and it frequently has flavors of apples, tropical fruit, vanilla, and butter, and varying degrees of oak, depending on the winery where it was produced. “White Burgundy”, from France, is almost always 100% Chardonnay. Many other wine regions around the world produce Chardonnay, including Chile and Australia. There are many good choices of American Chardonnay available for under $20. Popularand consistently reliable producers include BV, Columbia Crest, and Chateau St. Michelle, and others.

 

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc, also known as Fume Blanc, is another fairly well-known white wine. Sauvignon Blanc is often characterized as “freshly mown”, indicating that it reminds the taster of freshly mown grass. It is a medium-bodied white wine with noticeably fruity aromas like peach, grapefruit, and melon, and is dry and refreshing with medium acidity. Sauvignon Blanc is a particularly nice summer wine, especially good with seafood and it’s one of the best all around matches for hors d’oeuvres and picnics. Babich (New Zealand) offers a very nice Sauvignon Blanc for under 15 dollars.

 

Pinot Grigio

Pinot Grigio, sometimes called Pinot Gris (the actual grape name), is Italy’s most popular white wine, and is popular around the world, although the Italian Pinot Grigios can be a littlebland. Pinot Grigios are easy to drink, because they have a crisp, light taste. Oregon’s Pinot Gris tend to have more character, having medium body, with more pronounced fruit and more acidity. Higher quality bottles have fruity flavors of apple, pear, honeydew and a bit of spice. A couple of very nice Pinot Gris from Oregon, available for between $12-$18, are King Estate and Chateau St. Michelle, among others.

 

Riesling

Riesling wines are quite possibly the most popular German wine, and they are produced in two considerably different styles – dry and sweet. Rieslings are categorized by the ripeness of the grapes when harvested. Kabinett is made fromnormally ripe grapes, and is a light to medium-bodied, mostly dry wine. You’ll sometimesfind the word “trocken” on a bottle of Riesling, which is German for “dry”. “Spatlese” is produced from riper grapes, and results in a bit richer, somewhatsweeter, wine. “Auslese”, which means late harvest, is made from even riper grapes, and is usually verysweet. Rieslings are typically fruity, with apple, peach, and honeysuckle tastes and floral undertones. Rieslings are relatively inexpensive – you can find excellent offerings for under $10. One reliably very goodchoice is Strub Niertsteiner Riesling Kabinett, as well asChateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.

 

Gewurztraminer

Gewurztraminer is another very popularwhite wine from Germany, while also being produced in the U.S., France, New Zealand, and Australia. Gewurztraminer is also producedin both dry and sweet styles. Gewurztraminers have a brazen, full-bodied taste, considerably more so than most other whites. Typical aromas found inGewurztraminer are lychee nuts and rosewater, and its flavors include apricot, honeysuckle, and honey. A nice, inexpensive Gewurztraminer is produced byTrimbach (France, under $15).

 

A final note

The best way to find your favoritesin white wine is to just buy a selectionof bottles, and just try them for yourself. For each varietal, you’ll want to choose a bottle that’s representative of the style you’re wanting to try. Websites like Wine.com can help immenselywith finding solid, yet inexpensive choices. Once you find a varietal and style and producer you find particularly enjoyable, you might want to buy a case to have handy for entertaining, or to just enjoy at home. Most white wines won’t improve with aging, so you probably should not keep them around for years. However, you dowant to be careful to store your wine properly, so they retainthe wonderful flavors and aromas you appreciate. You might want to investin an inexpensive wine fridge, to keep all your wines at their absolute best.

White wines are best served moderately chilled, so you might want to refrigerate them beforehand, then take them outaround 15-20 minutes before serving. Better yet, you might want tobuy an iceless wine chiller, which will chill (or warm) a single wine bottleto the best temperature automatically – just select the pre-programmedwine varietal, pop in the bottle, and the chiller will cool your wine to the right temperature, and keep your wine at that temperaturethroughout your wine tasting.

Tags: beginner guide to white wine, white wine, white wine varietals

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 1:51 pm and is filed under food and wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.