A guide to white wine

LEOMINSTER, England, March 21 (UPI) -- Chardonnay seems to be the world's favorite white wine. White wine does not have to be Chardonnay to be nice, but no matter which wine-maker in which country is producing white wine, they feel that they have to produce a Chardonnay to make people notice.

For many consumers, Chardonnay has ceased to be a variety of grape and has become a brand.

In looking at white wines in general, I feel I have to begin by looking at the Chardonnay phenomenon. Its high alcohol and golden color are only part of the attraction. There is even one British pub chain marketing across the bar, a white wine called Chandorray, which seems to be aimed at the dyslexic market.

Its original home seems to be in the Lebanon. According to Jancis Robinson, in her book, "Vines, Grapes, And Wines," it is called "Meroué" when grown in the valleys and "Obaideh" when grown on the hillside.

If you have access to white wines from Lebanon, look out for these names. (Château Musar, a white wine as well as a red, but it is not so readily available.) How it got from there to France is a bit of a mystery, but a returning Crusader seems to have been the most likely route. In France, it became established as the grape of White Burgundy.

I have a friend, in the wine trade, who has a client who buys Chablis for himself and Chardonnay for his wife. The gentleman is so dismissive of his wife's love for Chardonnay, that he has not yet plucked up the courage to tell him that Chablis is the name of the village which makes its superb white wines from -- you've guessed it -- Chardonnay.

Chablis is quite acid, a touch austere, and often has a hint of green apple in the flavor, and often a hint of green in the color. It is, perhaps, an acquired taste, but definitely worth the effort.

Other villages in Burgundy produce wines of less acidity and riper fruit flavors, also from Chardonnay, culminating, for me, in the sheer opulence of Meursault.

Chardonnay grows well in most of the wine-growing world, and takes on a different character depending on where it is grown. The wines are almost always dry, but the taste of ripe fruit gets into the wine and can give an impression of sweetness even if very little sugar is present.

The hotter the climate is, the more tropical the fruit flavors become in the wine. The green apple taste of Chablis becomes mango or pineapple in the hotter parts of Australia. If the climate is hot, care must be taken to harvest the grapes before their acidity has dropped too much.

Californian wine-makers discovered the magical effect that new oak has with Chardonnay. That hint of vanilla rounds off the fruitiness and acidity to make a wine very easy to drink. A few years ago there were Australian wine-makers taking this to ludicrous extremes, when you could almost count the tree rings with your tongue, but have no idea what the fruit character of the wine was. Fortunately, wines like this are quite rare nowadays, and there are many fine examples of New World Chardonnay with no oak at all.

The big fat buttery taste so beloved in most Chardonnay is only indirectly from the grapes. Yeasts turn the juice to wine in the fall: a second fermentation, the malo-lactic fermentation, takes place in the spring. The wine contains the sharp-tasting malic acid, which is fermented by certain bacteria, which change it to the softer lactic acid. A side effect of this is the production of a substance called biacetyl, which has a distinctly buttery taste and aroma.

It is the combination of fruit and dairy flavors with the oak, that has made Chardonnay such a favorite all over the world. My own preference is for the subtleties of a cool climate, little or no oak, and a mere hint of that dairy taste. However, the amount of Chardonnay like this is only a small fraction of the amount of Chardonnay sold. (This shows how much I know about the wine trade.)

I, personally, think that Audrey Hepburn, elegant and refined, is more attractive than Dolly Parton, big, bold and very much up-front, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and these two ladies' attributes could be used to characterize the two differing styles of Chardonnay. You are allowed to enjoy both. Your wine-merchant -- or even your sommelier -- is there to sell you wine that you like, not what he or she thinks you ought to like. You buy the style of Chardonnay that you like. It is your money. Spend it as you like.

Grapes for white wine can either be described as neutral or as aromatic. Chardonnay sits midway between these two groupings and has a foot in both camps. The major aromatic varieties include Riesling, Sauvignon blanc, Pinot gris, Muscat, Viognier and Gewurztraminer. Cool climate and a long slow ripening lead to intense flavors sometimes backed up by high levels of acidity. Often, the best examples of these wines are from cool climates.

The producers tend not to want to give these wines a malo-lactic fermentation, as it would get in the way of varietal character. Not many wines made from these varieties come into contact with oak for the same reason.

Riesling is the best known of these aromatic varieties. In the Mosel valley it makes delicate floral wines but further South in the Rheingau there are flavors of honey and apricot.

The most usual term in German for describing Riesling is rassig, which can be translated as racy, (a reference to it maintaining its acidity at high sugar levels). It is this acidity, which gives it the capacity to age. Old Riesling becomes a superb amber gold in color, and develops a petrol aroma in the bottle. The high levels of acidity almost demand a little sweetness to balance. German dry Riesling is available. (Look for the word trocken if you want dry or halb trocken if you prefer just a hint of sweetness.)

Alsace produces some of the best dry Riesling. The long dry fall, which occurs regularly, helps to ripen the grapes more fully than in Germany. The grapes develop more weight and give a dry Riesling a better balance. Additionally, there has been some rather nice Australian dry Riesling coming on the market in the last few years.

Alsace also produces the best Pinot gris. Aromatic and almost spicy, it makes wonderful wines. Pinot grigio from Italy is usually nowhere near as good, the hotter climate making the wine much more neutral. Alsace dry Muscat smells deliciously of sweet grapes, but the wine is deceptively and wonderfully dry.

Liebfraumilch is a special category of German wine. It is mainly made from Müller-Thurgau grapes, to which a small amount of unfermented juice has been added. To prevent fermentation starting again, the wine can be filtered, centrifuged or sulfured.

In Europe, higher levels of sulfur dioxide are allowed for sweet wines than for dry, and a lot of Liebfraumilch suffers badly from its over-use. Treat Liebfraumilch with caution if you think you are susceptible to problems with wine related to the use of sulfur compounds as preservatives.

Sauvignon blanc often has more than a hint of gooseberry, especially from New Zealand. It is a little more restrained in Chile. Sancerre is also made from Sauvignon blanc, often with a slightly smoky character. White wines from Bordeaux and Bergerac blend in the more neutral Sémillon for a more subtle effect.

If you like this style of wine, and can get to an English vineyard, have a try of a dry Bacchus or a dry Madeleine Angevine. I would rate the best of them as highly as Sauvignon blanc from anywhere in the world.

Viognier is an aromatic variety from the Rhône valley, where it makes Condrieu and the fabulously expensive Château Grillet. It is a difficult variety to grow, gives a low yield of grapes, so will never be cheap, wherever they are grown, but the wines have a heady taste of apricots and violets. It is probably the aromatic variety best suited to a warm climate.

There are two ways of matching wines to food. The aromatic varieties will always be co-stars, and run the risk of outshining the food. The more neutral varieties will always be reliable in a supporting role.

Muscadet, made from Melon de Bourgogne, will always be good with fish or shellfish. Leaving it on its lees to get some yeasty tastes into the wine, removes what little fruit flavors the wine had, but most drinkers prefer Muscadet sur lie.

Pinot blanc will go with poultry or fish. As Weissburgunder, it is highly prized in Germany, though I have never been able to see why. Most Californian Pinot blanc is actually Melon de Bourgogne, our old friend from Muscadet.

Not many varieties are more neutral than Trebbiano, as it is known in Italy, or Ugni blanc as it is known in France. In spite of the world's love affair with Chardonnay, there is more white wine made from Trebbiano than from any other grape variety. It is usually pale, dry, and quite sharp with an almost nutty taste. In Cognac and Armagnac, it is often the base wine that is distilled for brandy - a much better use for it.

The world's most planted wine variety is Airén and is found mainly in Spain, where it is about the only crop that will grow on the hot and dusty plain of La Mancha. It generally makes dull and uninteresting wines, most of which can even make Trebbiano seem fun.

White wine can be served as an apéritif, with fish or poultry, or with sharp tasting cheeses, or on their own for a convivial evening with friends. Enjoy them. As with friends, you are allowed to enjoy more than one.

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(For more information, write to Geoff Morris, Orchard, Hive & Vine, 6 The Buttercross, Leominster, Herefordshire UK, HR6 8BN. Or email him at [email protected])