Beginner’s Guide to the Wor’ld’s White Wines

If you’re just beginning to experience the wonderful world of wine, you may well be confused by the huge variety of wines – whites, reds, blends, bubblies – and the multitude of choices within each of those broad categories. We’ll focus on 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 might expect from each and what distinguishes them from each other.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is definitely the most popular white wine in America – in fact, it’s quite commonly the only white wine many wine drinkers buy. Chardonnay is quite often the first white wine a new wine explorer will discover, largely because it is so “accessible”. Chardonnay tends to be on the dry side, meaning not very sweet, and it tends  to have flavors of tropical fruit, apples, vanilla, and butter, and degrees of oak, depending on how it was produced. “White Burgundy”, from France, is nearly always all Chardonnay. Many other wine regions around the world produce Chardonnay, among them Chile and Australia. There are many good choices of American Chardonnay available for under $20. Well-knownand consistently good producers include BV, Chateau St. Michelle, and Columbia Crest, and 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”, meaning that it reminds the drinker of freshly mown grass. It is a medium-bodied white wine with noticeably fruity aromas like melon, grapefruit, and peach, and is dry and refreshing with medium acidity. Sauvignon Blanc is a wonderful wine for summer, especially good with seafood and it’s a great match for light snacks and picnics. Babich (New Zealand) makes a very nice Sauvignon Blanc for under 15 dollars.

Pinot Grigio

Pinot Grigio, also called Pinot Gris (the actual grape name), is Italy’s most popular white wine, and is popular throughout the world, although the Italian Pinot Grigios are somewhatbland. 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 readily noticeable fruit and more acidity. Better bottles have fruity flavors of apple, pear, honeydew and a bit of spice. Two very nice Pinot Gris from Oregon, available at between $12-$18, are King Estate and Chateau St. Michelle, among others.

Riesling

Riesling wines are generally considered 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 harvested. Kabinett is made fromnormally 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 produced from grapes picked when riper, and results in a bit richer, slightlysweeter, wine. “Auslese”, which means late harvest, is made from even more ripe grapes, and is often quitesweet. 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 consistently goodchoice is Strub Niertsteiner Riesling Kabinett, along withChateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.

Gewurztraminer

Gewurztraminer is another very popularwhite wine from Germany, while also being produced in France, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. Gewurztraminer is also availablein 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 produced byTrimbach (France, under $15).

A final note

The best way to find your favoritesin white wine is to just pick up a coupleof bottles, and just try them. For each varietal, you’ll want to choose a bottle that’s representative of the style you’re wanting to try. Websites such as Wine.com can help immenselywith finding solid, yet inexpensive choices. Once you find a type and producer you find particularly enjoyable, you might want to pick up a case to have on hand for entertaining, or to just enjoy at home. Most white wines do not improve with aging, so you won’t want to keep them around for years. You do, however,want to be careful to store your wine properly, so they keepthe wonderful flavors and aromas you expect. You might think about investingin an small wine chiller, to keep all your wines at their best.

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