White Wines for Beginners
If you’re just beginning to explore the wonderful world of wine, you may find yourself confused by the huge variety of wines – reds, whites, bubbly, blends – and the many, many choices within each of those wide categories. We’ll focus on just one of those for this brief introduction – white wines. We’ll provide a short tour of the most well-known varietals (types of grapes), tell you what to expect from each and what distinguishes them from each other.
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is absolutely the most popular white wine in America – in fact, it’s claimed to be the only white wine many wine drinkers buy. Chardonnay is quite often the first white wine a new wine explorer will try, largely because it is so “accessible”. Chardonnay is most often on the dry side, meaning that it’s not very sweet, and it typically 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 throughout the world produce Chardonnay, including Australia and Chile. It’s fairlyeasy to obtain good choices of American Chardonnay available for under $20. Popularand reliable producers include BV, Columbia Crest, and Chateau St. Michelle, among others.
Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc, sometimes called Fume Blanc, is another very well-known white wine. Sauvignon Blanc is often described as “freshly mown”, meaning that it reminds the taster of freshly mown grass. It is a medium-bodied white wine with 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 a great match for light snacks 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 somewhatbland. Pinot Grigios are easy to drink, due to their crisp, light taste. The Pinot Gris offerings from Oregon tend to have more character, having medium body, with more readily noticeable fruit and more acidity. Better bottles have fruity flavors of apple, pear, honeydew and a touch of spice. A couple of very nice Pinot Gris from Oregon, available at between $12-$18, are King Estate and Chateau St. Michelle, among others.
Riesling
Riesling wines are usually considered the most popular German wine, and they are produced in two vastly different styles – dry and sweet. Rieslings are categorized by the ripeness of the grapes when picked. Kabinett indicatesnormally ripe grapes, and is a light to medium-bodied, mostly dry wine. You’ll oftensee the word “trocken” on a bottle of Riesling, which means “dry” in German. “Spatlese” is made from riper grapes, and results in a bit richer, slightlysweeter, wine. “Auslese”, which means late harvest, is made from even more ripe grapes, and is usually verysweet. Rieslings are typically fruity, with apple, peach, and honeysuckle flavors and floral undertones. Rieslings are relatively inexpensive – you can find excellent offerings for under $10. One consistently very goodchoice is Strub Niertsteiner Riesling Kabinett, as isChateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.
Gewurztraminer
Gewurztraminer is another well-knownwhite wine from Germany, while also being produced in France, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. Gewurztraminer is also producedin both dry and sweet styles. Gewurztraminers have a bold, full-bodied taste, considerably more so than most other whites. Typical aromas commonly found inGewurztraminer are lychee nuts and rosewater, and its flavors include honeysuckle, apricot, pear, and honey. A nice, inexpensive Gewurztraminer is available fromTrimbach (France, under $15).
A final note
The best way to determine your preferencesin white wine is to just pick up a coupleof bottles, and give them a try. 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 be very helpfulwith finding solid, yet inexpensive choices. Once you find a varietal and producer you like, you might want to pick up a case to have handy for entertaining, or to just enjoy at home. Most white wines won’t improve with age, so you shouldn’t keep them around for years. You do, however,want to be sure to properly store your wine, so they keepthe wonderful flavors and aromas you anticipate. You might consider investingin aninexpensive wine fridge, to keep all your wines at their best.
White wines are best served chilled, so it’s a good idea to refrigerate them beforehand, then remove themaround 15-20 minutes before serving. Better yet, you may want tobuy an electric wine chiller, which will chill (or warm) a single wine bottleto the optimal temperature automatically – just select the pre-programmedwine varietal, pop in the bottle, and the chiller will automatically cool (or warm) your wine to the right temperature, and keep your wine at the right temperaturethroughout your wine tasting.
