Beginner’s Guide to White Wine
Subscribe To Our Feed
If you’re just beginning to explore the wonderful world of wine, you may be somewhat confused by the vast variety of wines – reds, whites, blends, bubblies – and the many, many choices within each of those broad categories. We’ll choose just one of those for this intro – white wines. We’ll provide a short tour of the most popular varietals (types of grapes), tell you what you can expect from each of them and what sets them apart from each other.
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is certainly the most popular white wine in America – in fact, it’s reportedly the only white wine many wine lovers consume. Chardonnay is quite often the first white wine a beginning wine fan will try, largely because it is so “accessible”. Chardonnay is typically on the dry side, meaning not very sweet, and it tends to have flavors of vanilla, apples, tropical fruit, and butter, and degrees of oak, depending on how it was produced. “White Burgundy”, from France, is almost always 100% Chardonnay. Many other wine regions across the world produce Chardonnay, including Australia and Chile. There are many good choices of American Chardonnay available for under $20. Popularand reliable producers include Beaulieu Vineyards, Columbia Crest, and Chateau St. Michelle, among others.
Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc, also known as Fume Blanc, is another very well-known white wine. Sauvignon Blanc is quite 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 grapefruit, melon, and peach, and is dry and refreshing with medium acidity. Sauvignon Blanc is a particularly nice wine for summer, especially good with seafood and it’s one of the best all around matches for light snacks and picnics. A very nice choice, for under 15 dollars, is offered by Babich (New Zealand).
Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio, also referred to as Pinot Gris (the actual grape name), is Italy’s most popular white wine, and is popular throughout the world, although the Italian Pinot Grigios can be a littlebland. Pinot Grigios are easy to drink, having a crisp, light taste. The Pinot Gris offerings from Oregon tend to have more character, offering medium body, with more pronounced fruit and more acidity. Higher quality bottles have fruity flavors of apple, pear, honeydew and some spice. A couple of very nice Pinot Gris from Oregon, available for between $12-$18, are Chateau St. Michelle and King Estate, among others.
Riesling
Riesling wines are quite possibly the most popular German wine, and they are produced in two extremely different styles – dry and sweet. Rieslings are categorized by the ripeness of the grapes when they’re picked. Kabinett signifiesnormally 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 made from grapes picked later, and results in a bit richer, somewhatsweeter, wine. “Auslese”, which means late harvest, is made from even more ripe grapes, and is usually verysweet. Rieslings are typically fruity, with peach, honeysuckle, and apple flavors and floral undertones. Rieslings are relatively inexpensive - you can find excellent bottles for under $10. One reliably excellentchoice is Strub Niertsteiner Riesling Kabinett, along withChateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.
Gewurztraminer
Gewurztraminer is another popularGerman white wine, while also being produced in Australia, New Zealand, France, and the U.S. Gewurztraminer is also producedin both dry and sweet styles. Gewurztraminers have a brash, full-bodied taste, much more so than most other white wines. Typical aromas associated withGewurztraminer are lychee nuts and rosewater, and its flavors include apricot, honeysuckle, and honey. A nice, inexpensive Gewurztraminer is fromTrimbach (France, under $15).
A final note
The best way to figure out your own preferencesin white wine is to just pick out a samplingof bottles, and give them a try. For each varietal, you’ll want to choose a bottle that’s typical of the style you’re wanting to experiment with. Websites such as Wine.com can help immenselywith finding solid, yet inexpensive choices. Once you find a varietal and producer you like, you might want to pick up a case to have on hand 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 sure to store your wine properly, so they retainthe wonderful flavors and aromas you expect. You might consider investingin an inexpensive wine refrigerator, to keep all your wines at their best.
White wines are best served moderately chilled, so it’s a good idea to refrigerate them beforehand, then take them outabout 15-20 minutes before serving. Better yet, you might want topick up a single bottle electric wine chiller, which will chill (or warm) a single bottle of wineto the perfect temperature automatically – just select the pre-programmedwine varietal, pop in the bottle, and the chiller will cool your wine to the optimal temperature, and maintain that temperaturethroughout your wine tasting.
Technorati Tags: No Tags
Related Tags: No Tags
Possible Related Posts
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
