Wine Rack

On its own or in a blend, this white can age. With Sauvignon Blanc, its traditional partner, this is the foundation of Sauternes and most of the great dry whites found in Graves and Pessac-Leognan; these are rich, honeyed wines,. SÉmillon is one of the grapes susceptible to Botrytis cinerea. Australia’s Hunter Valley uses it solo to make a full-bodied white that used to be known as Hunger Riesling, Chablis or White Burgundy. In South Africa it used to be so prevalent that it was just called “wine grape,” but it has declined drastically in importance there.

In the United States, SÉmillon enjoys modest success as a varietal wine in California and Washington, but it continues to lose ground in acreage in California. It can make a wonderful late-harvest wine, and those wineries that focus on it can make well balanced wines with complex fig, pear, tobacco and honey notes. When blended into Sauvignon Blanc, it adds body, flavor and texture. When Sauvignon Blanc is added to SÉmillon, the latter gains grassy herbal notes.

It can also be found blended with Chardonnay, more to fill out the volume of wine than to add anything to the package.

Another white with a notable aroma, this one “grassy” or “musky.” The pure varietal is found mainly in the Loire, at Sancerre and Pouilly-FumÉ, As part of a blend, the grape is all over Bordeaux, in Pessac-LÉognan, Graves and the MÉdoc whites; it also shows up in Sauternes. New Zealand has had striking success with Sauvignon Blanc, producing its own perfumed, fruity style that spread across North America and then back to France.

In the United States, Robert Mondavi rescued the varietal in the 1970s by labeling it FumÉ Blanc, and he and others have enjoyed success with it. The key to success seems to be in taming its overt varietal intensity, which at its extreme leads to pungent grassy, vegetal and herbaceous flavors.

Many winemakers treat Sauvignon Blanc like in a sort of poor man’s Chardonnay, employing barrel fermentation, sur lie aging and malolactic fermentation. But its popularity comes as well from the fact that it is a prodigious producer and a highly profitable wine to make. It can be crisp and refreshing, matches well with foods, costs less to produce and grow than Chardonnay and sells for less. It also gets less respect from vintners than perhaps it should.

Its popularity ebbs and flows, at times appearing to challenge Chardonnay and at other times appearing to be a cash-flow afterthought. But even at its best, it does not achieve the kind of richness, depth or complexity Chardonnay does and in the end that alone may be the defining difference.

Sauvignon Blanc grows well in a variety of appellations. It marries well with oak and Sèmillon, and many vintners are adding a touch of Chardonnay for extra body. The wine drinks best in its youth, but sometimes will benefit from short-term cellaring. As a late-harvest wine, it’s often fantastic, capable of yielding amazingly complex and richly flavored wines.

One of the world’s greatest white wine grapes, the Riesling vine’s hardy wood makes it extremely resistant to frost. The variety excels in cooler climates, where its tendency to ripen slowly makes it an excellent source for sweet wines made from grapes attacked by the noble rot Botrytis cinerea, which withers the grapes’ skin and concentrates their natural sugar levels.

Riesling is best known for producing the wines of Germany’s Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Rheingau wines, but it also achieves brilliance in Alsace and Austria. While the sweet German Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese wines, along with Alsace’s famed Selection de Grains Nobles, are often celebrated for their high sugar levels and ability to age almost endlessly, they are rare and expensive.
More commonly, Riesling produces dry or just off-dry versions. Its high acidity and distinctive floral, citrus, peach and mineral accents have won dry Riesling many fans. The variety pairs well with food and has an uncanny knack for transmitting the elements of its vineyard source (what the French call terroir).

The wines from Germany’s Mosel region are perhaps the purest expression of the grape, offering lime, pie crust, apple, slate and honeysuckle characteristics on a light-bodied and racy frame. Germany’s Rheinhessen, Rheingau and Pfalz regions produces wines of similar characteristics, but with increasing body and spice.
In Alsace, Riesling is most often made in a dry style, full-bodied, with a distinct petrol aroma. In Austria, Riesling plays second fiddle to Gruner Veltliner in terms of quantity, but when grown on favored sites it offers wines with great focus and clarity allied to the grape’s typically racy frame.

In other regions, Riesling struggles to maintain its share of vineyard plantings, but it can be found (often under synonyms such as White Riesling, Rhine Riesling or Johannisberg Riesling) in California, Oregon, Washington, New York’s Finger Lakes region, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and Canada.

Grigio / Gris literally meaning grey in English, in fact the grape are red, lighter than that of its parent Pinot Noir, certainly more colour than most whites.

In France it used to be grown in Burgundy and the Loire, but now has its home Alsace, where it’s known as Pinot Gris, producing heavy bodied white with depth and concentration.

Italy is infamous for its production, where the majority are light bodied, watery and somewhat unremarkable. Collio, in the northeast however excellent whites that are soft, gently perfumed. In Germany it’s known as Ruländer.

Chardonnay is the king of white wines, reason being, it makes consistently excellent, rich and complex wines. Amazingly versatile, Chardonnay grows well in numerous locations throughout the world.

At home in Burgundy, it’s used for exquisite whites, such as Montrachet, Meursault and Pouilly-Fuissè. Further north it produces crisp unoaked Chablis and Blanc de Blancs in Champagne. Chardonnay is also age worthy varietal capable of ageing for many decades. Chardonnay is in actually fact an accidental crossing between Pinot Noir and Goulais Blanc, originating in Moldova.

Chardonnay has taken a downturn in the last 10 years due to tampering in the winemaker, though to date still remains the number one selling variety in the US. The natural characteristics of Chardonnay depends greatly on climate, in cool climate such as Chablis, floral notes with lime zest; green apples and grapefruit are typical, where as in hot climates such Somona County produces more tropical flavours like apricot backup by less acidic flavours of lemon, hazelnut, fig, honey, pineapple, melon and peach.

Many new world Chardonnays, though, have flavours of butter, brioche and oak. This is firstly derived from oaking with barrels and in cheaper circumstances, oak chips. The use of dead yeast (sur lie in French) also helps the wine develop a buttery taste we now from many Australian versions.