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Beginner’s Guide to White Wine Grapes
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Short Description: Beginner’s Guide to White Wine Grapes. Common White Grape Varieties. Chardonnay. This ubiquitous, fashionable white grape is now found growing in almost ...
Content Inside: Beginner's Guide to White Wine Grapes Common White Grape Varieties Chardonnay This ubiquitous, fashionable white grape is now found growing in almost every wine producing country. However, this popularity can make it hard to define due to the myriad variations in soil type, climate, clone and viticulture that influence the final wines. Chardonnay is particularly user-friendly to the winemaker, growing almost anywhere and able to be moulded into various styles ranging from classy long-lived white Burgundy, to Champagne, to rich buttery Aussie whites. The flavours associated with Chardonnay depend upon the winemaking. While there is an enormous amount of non-descript peachy, oaky dry white made from the grape, better examples taste of lemon, green apples and grapefruit in unoaked and lightly oaked styles, through to melon, white peach and cashew nuts in medium-bodied wines, and on to rich butter and toast in the barrel-fermented or barrel-aged wines. Chardonnay may also be put through malolactic fermentation - when harsh malic acid (think green apples) is converted to lactic acid - thus giving the wine a more creamy finish. While many Chardonnay aficionados look to Burgundy for their tipple, there are a number of producers in other countries that arguably make wines of similar complexity at more reasonable prices. South African stars include Vergelegen, Rustenberg, De Wetshof, Hamilton Russel, and Bouchard Finlayson, while great Aussie wines are made by Leeuwin Estate, Petaluma and Coldstream Hills, among numerous others. Colombard Widely grown in California and South Africa (where it is also known as Colombar), the origins of this grape stem from its' distillation for the famous brandies of Cognac and Armagnac in France. Its susceptibility to rot in France's moderate climate led to the decline in plantings for still wine production. However, the hot climates of California and South Africa have welcomed the grape, where it produces plain, crisp, dry whites. These are often blended with Chenin Blanc or Chardonnay. Chenin Blanc Chenin blanc is one of the mainstays of the Loire Valley in France, and is the most widely planted variety in South Africa (where it is occasionally called Steen), with a few wines hailing from California, Australia, and New Zealand. When made well, Chenin Blanc wines can taste superb, but often they are unripe, flabby, or over-sulphured. The grape has a naturally high acidity and thus lots of sun is required to bring out the fruit
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