Grapes & Wines

This New Section

2008-03-19T23:02:00.001-04:00

This new section on Wine-Flair.com will give you some interesting information about common - and not-so-common - wine grapes, as well as the wines they produce. I'll include some regional names so you'll know what to look for when you aren't shopping for wines by their varietal name (such as Chardonnay) but by the area where they're produced - generally for wines from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

I'll also give you some fun facts about grapes and wine, and a short list of some of the best producers from the USA, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and South Africa. This won't be a comprehensive list by any means, but it will be stuff that you can find at a decent retailer, and it will include modestly-priced as well as bargain wines, and some high-end wines too.

Again, I want to make the wine shopping and wine-tasting experience as easy and fun as possible. Wine is all about enjoyment, not stress nor snobbery!

Cheers.

Red, Red Wine

2008-02-28T07:50:00.170-05:00

Barbera

Barbera is the "people's grape of the Piedmont" and one of the most widely-planted grapes in Italy.

It produces a light, fruity and aromatic wine that a lot of people compare to Beaujolais, with nice bright acids and low tannin. It's a red than can be and probably ought to be drunk young, also like Beaujolais, but with its solid backbone of acid, it lasts a bit longer in the bottle, too.

I don't drink too much of it, but I'm including it here because it's important for new wine drinkers to explore a range of varietals and styles.

This is mostly an Italy-only grape, with the exception of a bit that's grown in California. The most popular growing regions in Italy are Alba, Asti and Monferrato, and they're a bit different in styles. Barbera D'Asti is closest to Beaujolais style, while Barbera D'Alba is more full-bodied and robust. It's actually a lovely wine with a solid core of blackberry and cherry flavors, and when it's not over oaked - and it's usually not - these come through bright and clean. Try Pio Cesare.

Cabernet Franc

This grape goes into some of the world's finest Bordeaux wines - albeit in relatively small proportions - and as a result is known mostly as a blending grape. One notable exception is Chateau Cheval Blanc in St. Emilion, where it's the core of this world-famous, hyper-expensive wine and one of the wines that Miles fawns over in Sideways.

Elsewhere in France it's the main grape in red wines from Chinon, Anjou, Champigny and Bourgueil and also in some Italian reds from Friuli and Alto Adige. In the US Cab Franc is gaining ground with a select group, however small, as a varietal wine in its own right.

In any event, Cabernet Franc is an important grape in the pantheon of fine red grapes, despite what you'll read in a lot of very good wine books. And it's different from almost any other red grape in the remarkable perfume it provides to wine and in the "greenish" or so-called vegetal quality it has.

For example, I was at a WineExpo tasting yesterday (3/8/08) in New York and was poured a red blend from South Africa. Before the guy behind the table could tell me what was in it, I remarked "this has to have a lot of Cab Franc in it." This is less a tribute to my only average nose and palate than it is to the unmistakable aroma of Cabernet Franc and what it contributes to red blends.

I think this is a tremendously unheralded, underrated red grape that is totally passed over by most wine writers and even in most wine books as an "assemblage" grape. To me it's an interesting if much more lightweight cousin of Cabernet Sauvignon, has the charm and nuance and Pinot Noir at (often) a fraction of the price, and offers its own palette of spices and flavors that you can't find elsewhere.

Cabernet Sauvignon

The undisputed king of red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon is widely-planted, with hardy vines that produce thick-skin grapes which resist rot, mold and frost. It ripens late compared to most other grapes, which has both positive and negative consequences for growers (and drinkers). And because the berries are small, there's a lot of pulp - skins, seeds, stems if the winemaker leaves them in - relative to juice, which also means a lot of tannin and other extracts. This, in turn, lends itself to long periods of oak aging, to soften those tannins and to give the wine other flavors such as toast, vanilla, leather, and cigar-box. No, I am not kidding.

Let's start by distinguishing between "old world" Cabs, and those in the new world, mainly the US, Central and South America, and Australia. And as you probably know, this makes a lot of sense because some wine regions of the worlds have naturally become synonymous with Cabernets - Bordeaux, first and foremost; Napa and Sonoma Valleys; Maipo in Chile; Mendoza in Argentina; and Coonawarra, Barossa and Yarra in Australia, for example.

One of the biggest differences is that most old world wines based on Cabernet are meant to be aged in bottle for several years at least before being drunk. By contrast, while most new world Cabernets can use a year or two of aging, they are meant to be drunk virtually from the moment they are released to the market.

Understanding Bordeaux wines isn't easy, but hey, it's probably a lot easier to figure out than Burgundy, where wines are named not only for the town or region where the grapes are grown, but often also for the vineyard, or even slice of a vineyard. There are two main types of Bordeaux, those based on Cabernet and those based on Merlot. However, even within each type is a marvelous range of styles, big differences in the mix and proportions of grapes, and some variation – although this is narrowing a bit - in wine making.

Cabernet in The New World

New World Cabs you probably know about a bit about - certainly you know them from Napa and Sonoma, maybe from Lodi and the Central Coast, Paso Robles, Monterrey, and perhaps from Washington and Oregon. Perhaps even from Long Island. And you've probably tasted a Cab or three from Australia, Chile or Argentina. New world Cab styles are more, as they say, "fruit forward" with less finesse and subtlety - they hit your palate with big, bold blackfruit.

Straddling the old and the new worlds are Cabernets from South Africa, from, say, the Stellenbosch region. These are great because they have much of the finesse and subletly of France and yet are more, well, interesting to American palates because they are a bit bigger and bolder at the same time.

Fun fact: Cabernet Sauvignon is an "accidental" grape and the result of the crossing of Cabernet Franc with Sauvignon Blanc in the 1600s, in France. This wasn't determined with certainty until the late 1990s by a team from, of course, UC Davis's School of Viticulture and Enology.

Corvina

Corvina grapes, along with Rondinella and often Molinara, go into Valpolicella wines, adding up to the second-highest production of reds in all of Italy. Valpolicella DOC wines are good, and Valpolicella Classico DOC Wines are even better and of course, more expensive. For my money, though, the fabulous Amarone wines are the true stars.

In an Amarone the grapes are plucked from the vines and then, rather than being immediately crushed, juiced and fermented, are dried for up to several weeks on straw mats or in cardboard boxes. Or, they may be placed in slatted plastic boxers sort of like milk crates, and stacked several high.

In any event, this process results in a dense and concentrated wine, and you'll hear reviewers talk about Amarones using words like tarry (yes, really), chocolatey, chewy, raisiny, and even tobacco-y. Whatever you call it, or however you describe it, just try it...it is a taste and tactile sensation unlike any other wine I know. Just tremendous.

There's even another, hybrid Amarone-style wine called "Ripasso ("re-passed"), in which unpressed skins from an Amarone are added to a Valpolicella DOC wine for a second fermentation, adding body and tannin to young and "ordinary" Corvina-based wine. The technique was begun as far as I can tell by the wine producer Masi, which also tried without success to trademark the technique.

Fun fact: "Amaro" means bitterness in Italian, but there's no Amarone of which I'm aware that could be described as bitter. And in fact there's a semi-sweet Amarone called Reicioto Della Valpolicella, where the fermentation is stopped early leaving some residual sugar.

Charbono

Charbono makes a big and powerful, dark wine that I first tasted only a few years ago at Summers Estate Wines north of Calistoga. It's pretty rare, folks - in 2006 there were fewer than 100 acres of it planted in all of California. No, that's not a typo. As far as I know, in the US it's grown only in north Napa, Mendocino and Lodi, and few Americans have ever heard of it; fewer still have tasted the wine.

This fat-berried, thick-skinned grape has been planted in California since the1800's and was only recently identified (of course by the wine-brains at UC Davis) as the virtually extinct Corbeau, or Charbonneau, that is grown in the Savoie region of France. It may also be related to Dolcetto of Italy's Piemonte region.

Anyway, Charbonos are lush with blackfruit, smoky, leathery and peppery in my experience. And while this does not conjure up "elegance" in a wine - and it's not - it's got soft tannins, nice acid and it drinks well right from the vintage release. It's as much an "American" wine as Zinfandel, so give it a shot! In addition to Summers, try Bonny Doon or Fife.

Frontenac

I'm adding Frontenac in the red wine section not in spite of, but precisely because it's a grape/wine that you've probably never tasted - or even heard of. It's actually the result of a cross (a mating of two of the same species) of a French-American hybrid and the native American Vitis Ripara. And it wasn't even introduced until 1996, by a team at the University of Minnesota.

Frontenac is a hardy grape that can prevail in temperatures down to about 30 degrees below zero. In other words, it can live happily through a mild Minnesota winter. It's also very resistant to disease, and at harvest produces juice with high acidity, calling for malolactic fermentation to soften it.

Frontenac wines are generally "cherry-forward," both in aroma and flavor, often with distinct blackberry flavors, and while I don't taste plum - at all - others do. Frontenac is widely planted in the upper Midwest for obvious reasons and in New York State, and I heartily suggest you try Benmarl's version, which is 75% Frontenac and 25% Marechal Foch, another wonderfully obscure red wine grape.

Gamay

Whether or not you celebrate "Beaujolais Day" on the 3rd Thursday of November, you've doubtless heard of Beaujolais wine, right?

This light, fruity stuff (it's not actually sweet, despite what some say) is easy drinking and is a good way for people who normally drink whites only to introduce themselves to reds. Many of these wines are fermented using Carbonic Maceration, a process in which whole clusters of (mostly) unbroken grapes are placed in a fermentation vat and then saturated with carbon dioxide. The CO2 penetrates the skins and causes fermentation to takes place within the berries, meaning that the wine will be less tannic and, some say, "fruitier" than wine fermented the traditional way.

In practice, though, some berries on the bottom will be crushed by the weight of the fruit above, release their juice and ferment in the traditional way. The point here is to have lighter wines that can be drunk right after bottling.

Other than the Beaujolais region, it also grows widely in Tours in the Loire, another famous wine region of France, but there it's typically blended with Cab Franc and with Cot, a French clone of Malbec.

Grenache

From Spain where it's called Garnacha, this vine produces truly black-berried grapes that ironically don't carry a lot of color into the wine. Makes a wonderful Rose, too (more about that when I get to the Rose section). The best-known Garnachas are from the Priorato (Priorat in Catalan) in the northeast, an hour from the Mediterranean coast and fairly close to the French border. This is hilly country with some kind of unique, layered red slate soil called llicorella that is the secret of these monster wines of Spain. High in alcohol, Prioratos usually have a bit, or quite a bit of Carinena grape in them, which used to be the dominant variety here. Garnacha is also the main grape in Navarra wines, up the Ebro river in Spain towards the Atlantic, opposite the Rioja region where Tempranillo reigns.

In France Grenache is the base for one of my favorite reds, Chateauneuf du Pape, but in that wine it is blended with several other grapes, mainly Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault.

Some say Chateauneufs (if I can call 'em that) are the only great expression of Grenache but I can send some angry Spainards (and an investment banker from Graham Avenue in Metuchen, NJ) with drawn swords over to argue the point with them.

Fun Fact: There's also a gray and a white "version" of the Garnacha grape. And a "hairy" version of it, too! Eww. They say the grape originated in Aragon, you know, Catherine of Aragon, from Northern Spain, Henry VIII's first wife and the one who kept her head. Literally.

Malbec

Some say this is "the new Cabernet." Hooey. Malbec is a great grape and a wonderful wine in its own right, and the comparison is not only false but lazy.

If you've got a good wine retailer, he or she will likely have at least a couple of these on hand, and they'll probably be from Argentina which is currently claiming Malbec as its own "national" grape, however informally. But they do produce wonderful stuff down there, given the hot dry climate and ideal soils. The wines are rich and jammy - not a bad thing here, although maybe in other cases and in other varietals.

Fun fact: Malbec is one of the five grapes permitted in Bordeaux wines but you'll rarely if ever find any. You're more likely to find smidgens of Malbec in Bordeaux-style blends from Napa such as Rudd.

Another fun fact: One of the local names for Malbec in France is Cot, and in Anjou in the Loire region they make wonderful dry and off-dry roses from it. Really!

Merlot

Properly pronounced "mare-low", this seems to be the go-to grape and wine for legions of Americans who only sorta like red wine, or at least aren't very adventuresome about it. Even the cheapest dive around is likely to have at least one Merlot on the list (probably along with White Zin) and it probably will be unremarkable, uninteresting, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Merlot ripens a week or two faster than Cabernet Sauvignon, and tends to do a bit better in cooler climates as well, which makes it a very versatile versatile grape. Yet Merlot can produce some truly superb wine on its own with the body of Cabernet Sauvignon, the perfume of Cab Franc, the boldness of Malbec, or the finesse of Pinot Noir. In fact, the right-bank wines of Bordeaux based on Merlot are commanding not only stratospheric prices and ratings these days, but also changing the way people think about the grape.

One interesting development with Merlot, an example of which is shown to the right, is that the French have picked up on the fact that Americans, Aussies and other enthusiastic wine drinkers buy wine based on the grape. So, some smart and enterprising Frenchmen like Christian Moueix of Chateau Petrus fame (he actually owns the distribution, not the label) have come out with some Merlot varietals, clearly aimed at the new world market.

Petit Sirah

I am including this grape here because you probably won't hear about it elsewhere, and it's an American grape in some ways. Sort of.

First, notice the spelling, it's "Sirah" not "Syrah," and a variant is called "Durif" although most enologists and wingrowers says it's really the same vine and grape. In the US it's used as a blending grape in Zinfandels and occasionally in Pinots but is gaining some notice as a cult varietal wine on its own. With small berries there's a lot of skin relative to juice, which leads to a lot of tannin, saome smoke, and flavors of blackberry, plum, and coffee.

These days, Petit Sirah and Durif are both recognized as varietals by TTB, the U.S. Federal Government Agency that regulates wineries. But even though they are alternative names for what is really the same grape, they can't be used as synonyms on American wine labels according to the law. Some law. A law. A law you don't have to worry about, anyway.

So, if you run across P.S. in your wine store, buy a bottle a try it. It's not always easy to find, and the wineries that grow it often only grow enough for a few hundred cases or less. Remember, this is all about expanding your taste horizons! Try Bogle, Stags' Leap Winery, Concannon or Vincent Arroyo.

Pinot Noir

I can't resist mentioning Sideways, the 2003 movie that brought new fame to the Pinot Noir grapes. Miles, the film's main character, gushes on about the almost magical properties of Pinot. After the release of this movie, sales of Pinot Noir wines rose by more than 20% over the 2004-5 Christmas season period, compared to the same period the previous year!

Especially compared to most other red wines (except, perhaps, Beaujolais), Pinot produces light, moderately to highly-perfumed and lightly-tannic wines that are often described as silky. At the same time, depending on where the grapes are grown, Pinots can offer an earthy or even musky aroma, which, when unwrapped, delivers up a core of black cherries, spice and fresh acidity with only a hint, if that, of tannin.

Now, people who were weaned on Red Burgundies will tell you that the only true expressions of the grape are from, well, Burgundy, and will cite names you've probably heard even if you've never tasted them. Yet I can suggest a dozen Pinots from Washington and Oregon State, South Africa and even Australia which, while quite different in character from their French cousins, have a lot to offer entirely on their own. I'll name some great producers later.

Fun Fact: Pinot Noir gives the word's fines Champagnes and sparkling wines much of their backbone and character, and Blanc de Noir sparklers are made almost entirely from Pinot.

Pinotage

Most grapes can be traced back at least hundreds, if not thousands of years. By contrast, Pinotage was literally invented in 1925 in South Africa by Abraham Izak Perold, who would become the first Professor of Viticulture at the University of Stellenbosch. It's a cross of Pinot Noir with Cinsault, which creates a spicy, earthy wine with a lot of the character of Pinot Noir.

More later. This is a tremendous, unappreciated wine!

Sangiovese

This grape is grows in several strains, producing quite different wines, most prominently in Italy. It's by far my favorite Italian grape, but it's had a resurgence here in the US where wineries such as Cosentino in Napa and Pedroncelli in Sonoma produce excellent versions. I always think of "juicy" when I drink Sangiovese - although that's kind of absurd since all wine is "juicy" by definition, isn't it?

Sangiovese is the one red wine I can recommend to anyone regardless of their tastes and preferences in reds, or especially when I don't know what they like...or even if they drink reds at all.

It's Italy's most important grape by just about any measure - acreage, production, and reputation. And, maybe, national character even. With 14 clones it's the grape of Brunello, Brunello di Montalcino, Montepulciano, Prugnolo and dozens more of Italy's finest wines.

But most of all Sangiovese is the grape of Chianti, and of the so-called Super Tuscans, Sangiovese-based reds with some Cabernet Sauvignon tossed in for added body and longevity and sometimes Merlot for softness and roundness. Most wine aficionados describe Sangiovese as having a violet-like aroma, a strawberry flavor, with a little spice. It's an outstanding food wine in my view and with a wiede vareity of styles to choose from, from within Italy alone, you can find a Sangiovese-based wine you will love!

Syrah

This is another very versatile grape depending on where it's been grown, and the prevailing winemaking style there.

For example, Australia's Shiraz wines (same grape, different spelling down under) are typically jammy, spicy, opulent and intense, with relatively high alcohol that makes them a little hot on the tongue. I don't want to prejudice you, but some Aussie Shiraz(es?) are so potent that they overwhelm my palate, anyway, a few sips into the second glass.

However, Syrahs from France's Rhone valley are generally quite different - higher in acid, less fruity, better balanced and in my view more drinkable.

But both styles have their fans, so you be the judge and try both. I really don't want a gang of pissed-off, Vegemite-deprived, boomerang-throwing folks coming after me, so DO try the Aussie version. Please.

Tannat

You've got to really love red wine to even get near this one. Tannat grows in southwest France in a region called Madiran and produces what I believe is the most dense and tannic wine in the world.

Yet in the hands of a skilled winemaker, the stuff is great, can cellar for decades or more, and is probably drinkable after about 5-7 years although I'd urge you to decant and wait an hour or so before drinking a Tannat wine that young. My personal favorite is Montus Madiran, shown at left.

Madirans are often blended with a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon, or Cab Franc and sometimes with Fer Servadou (called "Pinenc" in the Madiran region itself). Tannat has become one of the signature grapes of Uruguay, responsible for about a third of the wine produced in that country...look for great stuff from Don Prospero, Omar Perco, and Bouza.

Most interestingly of all - to me, anyway - Tannat is grown and produced as a varietal in California and Virginia among other places, after it was recognized by BATF (now TTB) in 2002. Look for good good stuff from Tablas Creek (Paso Robles) or Chrysalis Vineyards in Virginia.

Tempranillo

Also called Tinto Fino in Spain and Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo is a small-berried, thick-skinned grape best known in Rioja wines, and also in Ribera Del Duero wines, too.

Tempranillo berries are big and fat and produce tannic, dark wines that remind me a bit of Madirans made from the Tannat grape. They also have a nice backbone of acid that when combined with these other elements, gives them the ability to age gracefully for a long time. This contrasts with years past when these grapes were mostly used for local and decent if simple rose wines.

Fun fact: This was probably an indigeneous French grape that you can't find anwhere in the land of the Gauls today. But hey, they've got enough noble grapes, anyway, right?

Zinfandel

The "state grape" of California makes a spicy, zesty, slightly sweet wine that goes great with ribs, wings, burgers and other savory meats. Zinfandel gained some notoriety in 1975 - or perhaps just created some confusion - when Sutter Home winery in St. Helena created White Zinfandel, essentially by accident when they experienced a stuck fermentation.

Yet Zin is among the world's heartiest, spiciest, meatiest red wines...and speaking of meat, Zin is famous - as you almost certainly know already - as an accompaniment to barbeque and other savory meats. And there's a big trade group called ZAP, Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, that puts on one of the most fun wine shows you'll ever attend.

Very Longwinded Fun Fact: Zinfandel has long fascinated winegrowers and winemakers and a lot of "wine sleuthing" went into tracking down its origins in recent years. UC Davis Professor Carol Meredith used DNA fingerprinting techniques to determine that Zin was actually almost identical to the Italian Primitivo grape - essentially different clones of the same variety - based on an earlier hunch of fellow UC Davis Prof Austin Goheen.

A few years later, after getting a bunch of California Zin producers involved in the hunt (Notably Mike Grgich, the Croatian immigrant and winemaker, and one of the first employees of Robert Mondavi Winery), the origins of Zin/Primitivo were determined to be the Croatian Grapevine Crljenak Kastelanski.

Sadly, this means that the "only true American grape" is hardly that.

But it's still a very nice - and very American - wine; at left, from a photo provided by ZAP, you see California workers harvesting the fall 2007 crop.

Whites

2008-01-30T10:22:00.033-05:00

Chablis

Made from 100% Chardonnay, this style of wine tends to be more steely and austere than most other Chards, and that's fine with me, because I think that many winemakers manipulate that grape way too much.

There are four classified Chablis wines that come from this small area in Northern Burgundy - Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Chablis AOC, and Petit Chablis, going from most to least prestigious. Petit Chablis often gets a bad name as being watery and uninspired, but I've found some very good "ordinary" Chablis AOC wines.

Now, Chablis is pretty far north for grapegrowing, and the grapes never fully ripen on many vineyards, including Grand Crus vineyards, before they're picked. As a result, the quality is spotty and you've got to do some research. Talk to your retailer, too.

Chablis gives you more green ("grassy") aromas and flavors than White Burgundies, and are much less oaky than almost all American or Australian Chardonnays. Great with fresh seafood in my view, especially raw oysters, clams and mussels. Some say that Chablis ages quite nicely, and others, pointing out that they rarely see oak, call for quaffing within two years of the vintage. I say try them both ways and see what you think.

Don't confuse real Chablis with inexpensive California jug and carafe wines sometimes labeled "Chablis," because they're a fraud - a mix of several white bulk wines that weren't good enough to go into their producers' first labels. Or who knows what else!

PRODUCERS

France: Joseph Drouhin, Olivier Laflaive, Simonnet-Febvre, Laboure-Roi, J. Faiveley, Blanchot

Chenin Blanc

You don't find this often in American wine stores but do yourself a favor and try it as a break from Chardonnay or the white you drink most often. In France, the grape is sometimes called Pineau de la Loire, and in South Africa the grape is called Steen.

Many French Chenin Blancs are labeled "Vouvray," the region from where they come, and can range from "sec" (dry) to "demi-sec", (semi-sweet), "moelleux" (sweet) and finally "liquoreux" (very sweet). Coteaux de Layon and Coteaux du Layon-Villages in the Loire produce sweet Chenin wines only.

I served a bottle of the off-dry Vouvray with Turkey at Thanksgiving and it was a hit, and I recommend the dry variety for shellfish.

Fun fact: Most wine enthusiasts believe that no other grape imitates the flavors of a Chenin Blanc.

PRODUCERS

France: Sauvion Coteaux du Layon, Chateau de Montfort Vouvray, Thierry Germain Saumur Blanc, J. Moreau & Fils, Chateau de Fesles Chenin Blanc Anjou, Domaine Jo Pithon Pepinieres Anjou
USA: Dry Creek, Pine Ridge (mixed with a bit of Viognier)
South Africa: Slent Farms, Ken Forrester Stellenbosch, Cederberg, Raats

Cortese

Italian stallion, the Cortese grape is grown in the Piedmont in northwest Italy and produces two whites - Gavi de Gavi and Cortese de Gavi.

Fun fact: Piedmont ("foothill") is the region of Italy closest to France, so the food there is much more French - butter and cream sauces, and even white truffles. This wine really works well with that style of food.

"Gavis" are pale straw in color, offer up very faint - sometimes almost imperceptible - aromas of pear, citrus, and some say almond, and are steely and dry on the palate with a lip-smacking acidity. They keep well and age with a nice richness, several years after the vintage, and go great with white fishes and roasted chicken.

PRODUCERS

Italy: Principessa, Arnelle, Broglia Gavi di Gavi "La Meirana", La Scolca Gavi di Gavi Etichetta Nera (Black Label), La Rocca Gavi

Muscadet

I'm including Muscadet, made from Melon-de-Bourgogne grapes, because it's almost unknown and that's a shame.

Muscadet delivers up scented green apples, lime, and pear with wonderful acidity. It's typically fermented to be a little fizzy ("Petillant" in French) which just adds to its charm. Not easy to find, perhaps, but worth the effort. This is the wine to have with oysters by all accounts, and I like it with sardines in mustard sauce. Serve well chilled.

Fun facts: "Muscadet" is the name of a wine, not the place name where the grapes are grown, as in the case with most French wines. "Muscadet Sevre et Maine" gets its name from the two rivers that cross the vineyards in Nantes. And the grape itself, sometimes referred to as "Melon de Bourgogne" is the only grape that can go into a Muscadet.

PRODUCERS

France: Sauvion, Marc Ollivier, Muscadet sur Lie Chateau de Chesnaie, Barton & Guestier Muscadet Loire Valley

Picpoul Blanc

I doubt you'll find this in many wine shops outside New York, Chicago and San Francisco, but if you do, try a bottle. I'm including it here because, well, it's so rare you won't hear much about it anywhere else, and how fun would that be?

This grape is also known as a wine, Picpoul de Pinet, from, naturally, the Pinet Region in the Coteaux de Languedoc. It delivers a lot of grapefruit, pear and spice flavors, and is one of the most crisp and fresh wines I've ever tasted. But most of the time, this grape is just one in a blend, such as the wonderful white Chateauneuf-du-Pape from France's Rhone region. If I'm not mistaken, in Italy it's used to make Vermouth.

Fun fact: The original name, Piquepoul de Pinet, means "lip stinger" and refers to the biting acidity of this wine.

PRODUCERS

France: Gaujal St. Bon, Hugues Beaulieu, Domaine des Lauriers Coteaux du Languedoc, Domaine de la Rose
USA: Tablas Creek Vineyard, Lone Madrone Picpoul Blanc Paso Robles

Pinot Grigio

This stuff seems to have taken the place of Chardonnay on American palates and in wine stores - it's everywhere, easy to order, and I've never seen a restaurant with a liquor license that doesn't have at least one on the list. But a lot of it isn't very good -- Santa Margherita, for example, has almost become synonymous with Pinot Grigio but in my view it's thin, watery and far too tart without any balancing qualities.

Anyway, Pinto Grigio is really just the Italian name for the more prosaic French name of Pinot Gris. Pinot Grigio tends to deliver a zesty, lemony taste, although the French version usually is more full-bodied and luscious, with much more aroma.

Dry, fruity Alsatian Pinot Gris in particular is really coming into its own, but to make sure you're not getting a sweet version, avoid "Vendange Tardive" (late harvest) on the label.

Fun fact: Although it's typically a white wine, the grapes at maturity have dark pink skins (see at left), and the Italians make a wonderful rose wine, Pinot Grigio Ramato, from them.

PRODUCERS

France (as Pinot Gris): Hugel Pinot Gris, Willm Alsace, Trimbach, Weinbach
USA: Luna, Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris, Clos du Bois, Ponzi
Italy: Angelo Pittaro Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Bollini Trentino, Pinot Grigio delle Venezie

Pinot Blanc

The best of this varietal come from the Alsace region of France, and are lively, smoky, full-bodied with very little nose. Often described as "Chardonnay-like", these grapes grew on the North Fork of Long Island and were thought to be Chard until someone did a genetic test.

Fun fact: The Alsatian ones will be in Riesling-style long-neck bottles, with labels in French but that look German. After all, Alsace is only miles from the German border. Look for Pinot Blancs from Oregon, too; from Italy where they're known as Pino Bianco.

PRODUCERS

USA: Chateau St. Jean, Chalone, J. Lohr, Cameroni Pinot Bianco Giovanni, Castello di Amorosa, Lieb Family Cellars (Long Island)
France: Trimbach, Willm, Bott-Geyl (Notice the Germanic-sounding names; these are all from Alsace)
Italy: Cantina Terlano, Aldo Polencic,
Australia: Yamhill Valley
Chile:

Sauvignon Blanc

What a great grape! You can get Sauvignon Blanc in a wide variety of styles, ranging from sharp, intense grapefruit-y New Zealand, to middle-of-the road Napa, to soft, round and elegant Sancerre.

No matter which, this is always a distinctive, refreshing wine that often evokes freshly-cut green peppers, and while it quenches your thirst, can actually leave your mouth watering. In France this wine is labeled Sancerre, Pouilly Fume, or Bordeaux Blanc (often mixed with a bit of Semillon). It has become a huge industry by itself in New Zealand starting in the mid 1980s, and in many wine stores, NZ Sauvignon Blancs often dominate the shelves.

Fun fact: SB was found only in 1997 to be a mutation of Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Lots of producers are listed below, covering the wide range of styles I talked about. Try one from each region!

PRODUCERS

France - Sancerre: Domaine Vacheron Sancerre Blanc, Domaine Fournier Sancerre Grande Cuvee Vieilles Vignes, Thomas-Labaille Sancerrre Chavignol Monts Damnes
France - Pouilly Fume: Michel Bailly Pouilly Fume Les Loges, Baron de Ladoucette
France - Bordeaux Blanc: Michel Lynch Sauvignon Blanc Bordeaux, Graville-Lacoste Graves Blanc,
New Zealand: Cloudy Bay, Kim Crawford, Pegasus Bay, Brancott, Lawsons Dry Hills
USA: Mt. St. Helena, Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc To Kalon, Souverain Cellars, Fetzer California Valley Oaks
USA Blends Based on Sauvignon Blanc: Bennett Lane Maximus, Conundrum, Beringer Alluvium White
Chile: Casa Lapostolle Classic Sauvignon Blanc
South Africa: De Grendel, Mulderbosch, Buitenverwachting "Beyond" Sauvignon Blanc Constantia

Trebbiano

This isn't the noblest of grapes, mind you, and you've probably never heard of this wine - Lugana - or the grape. It comes from an amazingly beautiful place in Italy (which is saying something, indeed), Lugana, between Lombardy and the Veneto on the southern side of Lake Garda.

Yet in France, where the grape is called Ugni Blanc, it's used primarily to make Cognac and is otherwise undistinguished as a table wine grape. In Italy, though, they turn Trebbiano into a wonderful still white wine - full bodied, rich and complex. It's great with poultry, pasta with white and cream-based sauces, and seafood. This really is an elegant, refined wine that delivers soft peach flavors and a crisp finish. Seek it out from your retailer as it's pretty hard to find.

PRODUCERS

Italy: Zenato Lugana, Lugana Tenuta Roveglia, Lugana Doc Superiore.

Vinho Verde

From the land of dark, intense Port comes this cheap, unassuming white, a product of the Alvarinho grape, the Trajadura or a mixture of both.

Produces an incredibly light, delicate wine with slight fizziness and low alcohol. I use Vinho Verde (literally, "green wine") as the base for my White Sangria. You can get it for as little as $4 for a 750ml bottle, and on a hot summer day, it's worth its weight in, well, Chardonnay.

PRODUCERS

Portugal: Solar, Gazela, Auratus, Vinho Verde Provam, Portal do Fidalgo, Famega

Fuller-Bodied Whites

Chardonnay

The 500-pound gorilla of white grapes, Chardonnay is the world's most versatile grape and produces an almost infinite range of styles. From the steely and fresh Chablis, to the soft, elegant and perfectly balanced Puligny-Montrachet, and finally to oaky and smoky California and Australian styles that ooze with butter and lemon, almost everyone finds something they like.

Chardonnay's versatility shows, too, as the base wine for some of the world's greatest Champagnes and sparkling wines. It's perfect for them because of its neutrality and freshness, and it can take on a toasty flavor from long periods of secondary fermation on the lees.

Kendall-Jackson and Yellow Tail are probably the most widely sold Chardonnays in the world, but if you stayed with their style and those producers you'd be doing yourself a tremendous disservice, as they're the most over-the-top examples of the varietal. To each his own, and this site is all about finding wines that you like. But given that you can find K-J and Yellow Tail-style Chards anywhere - and I'll be that in an average wine store, 90% of them are very similar - I'm listing some producers that generally don't use oak, in the hope you'll try something, in the words of Monty Python, "completely different."

Even beyond that, many of these wines don't undergo any malolactic fermentation (MLF), the process that turns crisp, apple-y malic acid into softer, milky lactic acid. For example, I list here ZD Chardonnay, from Napa's Silverado Trail, because while it's aged and fermented in "neutral" American oak (older barrels that don't impart much oak flavor) it's not MLF'd, so it's quite bright and fresh.

PRODUCERS

USA: ZD, Chateau St. Croix, Clos La Chance, Kunde Estate Chardonnay Nu, Four Vines Naked Chardonnay, Tolosa Chardonnay No Oak, Blockheadia, Clos du Val Searle Vineyard Carneros
Australia: Kim Crawford
New Zealand: Esk River, Tuatara Bay

Grenache (White)

I don't know if the Pope drinks Chateauneuf du Pape, but I sure do. Usually it's built on a base of White Grenache, also known as Garnacha, and typically includes several other white grapes, among them Muscat, Clairette, Bourboulenc, and Roussane.

Taking no back seat in my view to its better-known red brother, White Chateauneuf delivers aromas of grass, flavors of honey and pear, and the perception of minerals. The White Grenache often adds nutty flavors.

This is a round and slightly "fleshy" wine, with relatively low acid, lots of body and a long finish; drink young.

Fun fact: The name means "New Castle of the Pope,"

PRODUCERS

France: Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe, Vieux Donjon, Chateau Les Cailloux, Clos des Papes, Chateau de Beaucastel, Clos de Mont-Olive, Domaine de La Vieille Julien, Chateau Carieres, M. Chapoutier, Jaboulet

USA (knockoffs): Tablas Creek Vineyard,

Muscat Blanc

A few years ago, Muscat de Beaumes-de Venise was the "it" dessert wine, but no longer. Still, it's a nice change from Port and you can often find it even at mediocre restaurants that haven't put a lot of thought in their wine lists. And while most Americans can't distinguish a Muscat from a musket, it's a popular table grape.

Fun fact: "Musca" is Latin for the word "flies" and it might be that this grape was known for attracting insects and other varmints from its perfumed sweetness. Muscat also makes some lesser-known dry wines, and their claim to fame is (I am told), they're the only wine that goes with asparagus! You decide.

PRODUCERS

USA: Bonny Doon, Robert Pecota, Fess Parker
USA (dry Muscat): Belle Pente
France: Paul Jaboulet, Domaine de Coyeaux
Alsace, France (Dry Muscat): Hugel Gentil,
Australia: Chambers Rosewood
Italy (Moscato): Ceretto Moscato D'Asti, Michele Chiarlo
Spain (Dry Muscat): Sumarroca

Riesling

This delicious, highly aromatic wine is really under-appreciated in my view, probably because the German wine labeling is confusing and makes no sense, even to Germans.

Even more, perhaps, most people think it comes only in sweet, sweeter and cotton-candy styles. Yet the Alsace region of France produces bone-dry Rieslings as do Napa, Australia and several other wine regions. And even some of the sweeter German versions may not taste as sweet as you'd expect because the sugar is matched by a high level of acid.

Happily, Riesling has made a comeback in America: my favorite dry Riesling is from Trefethen in Napa's Oak Knoll district, while Chateau St. Michelle in Washington State makes dry as well as off-dry (semi-sweet) versions.

Fun facts: Riesling is known for delivering an initial aroma of "petrol," and that can help you begin to recognize the varietal with one or two sniffs. Don't dwell on that, though, and don't let it put you off this fabulous wine. Also - German Rieslings made from grapes that are picked at the highest levels of sugar ("beerenauslese" and "trockenbeerenauslese") are difficult to ferment, and as a result they often have remarkably low levels of alcohol, especially compared to most American wines.

Look for flowery scents and flavors of honey, lime, ginger, and peaches. Rarely if ever oaked, and as a result it goes great with Asian food, some Indian food, pork loin, and soft shell crabs. In my view, the best American Rieslings stand up to anything the Germans can offer. Pronounce it "Reesling" (like a Reese's cup) rather than "Reezling."

PRODUCERS

USA: Trefethen, Chateau St. Michelle, J. Lohr, V. Sattui, Chateau Lafayette Reneau (NY), Dr. Konstantin Frank (NY), Ferrante Golden Bunches (Ohio)
Germany: Josef Leitz, Fritz Haag, Selbach-Oster, Robert Weil
France: Trimbach, Zind-Humbrecht, Domaine Weinbach, Marcel Deiss
Australia: Rosemount, Pikes Clare Valley, Reilly's Watervale

Semillon

This "oily" grape mixes with Sauvignon Blanc, four parts to one, to create what is perhaps the world's most prized dessert wine, Sauternes (Chateau D'Yquem) and almost as famous and prized in Barzac. Both villages are in the Aquitaine region of France, just below the large area of Bordeaux that's home to the world's most famous reds. The Semillon grape's thin skins make it susceptible to Botrytis Cinerea or "noble rot", reducing the water content of the berry and marvelously concentrating its sugars and flavors before harvest.

You'll also find Semillon in Australia, South Africa and even in Washington State in the US. I've never seen it as a varietal but I'm sure somebody produces it. Aside from dessert wine, Semillon does yeoman's duty as a blending grape for the dry versions of Sauvigon Blanc, too.

Viognier

After White Burgundy, this is my all-time favorite dry white wine. It is among the world's most aromatic whites, with a rich, viscous fullness and often, high alcohol content. As such, it's an acquired taste and often overpowering to those who'd more readily drink, say, a Pinot Grigio.

I find the California versions enjoyable and fresh but many are a bit too "enthusiastic" and overpowering for my taste, while the best Viogniers from France's Condrieu region (above) can be rather expensive, $100/bottle or more in a retail shop.

This wine is so rich, you may perceive some residual sugar even when there isn't much, or when there's not enough acid for balance. Like overoaked Chardonnays. I'd say drink within 3-4 years of the vintage.

PRODUCERS

USA: Miner, Bridlewood, Joseph Phelps, Arrowood, Castle Vineyards, Palumbo
France (Condrieu): Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu, Chateau Grillet, Saint Cosme, E. Guigal. These range from about $45 to $90 the bottle.
France (Viognier as a Varietal): Les Canteruls Viognier Vin de Pays d'Oc (inexpensive)