What’s your White Wine Personality?

It may seem silly, but there’s some sense to the notion of a wine personality or maybe it’s a changing wine mood you have? If you’re preferring a white wine, are you a crisp and clean type, aromatic and fragrant, oaked and buttery or earthy and minerally? Wanting a red wine? Are you in the mood for playful and light, bold and spicy, soft and fruity or rich and powerful?? Knowing your wine personality or mood for the moment can help you make the right selection at the liquor store or from the wine menu at dinner.  

In this post I’ll take you through white wine personalities or mood types and the types of wines and flavours that fall under each. Tell the restaurant sommelier that you’re in the mood for a crisp, clean and racy white… it’s sure to put a smile on their face and you’ll be speaking their language!

White Wines

Crisp, Clean and Racy White Wines

Crisp is a wine term used to describe a dry white wine and it’s level of acidity. Racy is a wine term used to describe a light-bodied white wine. This is a general umbrella wine description that can apply to many types of white wines and other wine personalities. For example, dry and minerally wines are also crisp and racy.

Wine Regions and Grapes Used:

Crisp white wines are often produced in cool climate regions with the Sauvignon Blanc grape from New Zealand and Chile or with the Pinot Grigio grape from Italy. Crisp and clean, racy white wines are usually produced in stainless steel tanks as opposed to oak barrels in order to maintain the acidity and crisp, sharp fruit flavours in the wine.

You might also like Chablis from northern Burgundy in France made with the Chardonnay grape aged in stainless steel tanks. Even though Chablis wine is made with the Chardonnay grape, there is no oak used in its production – the taste is dry, crisp and often minerally.

Taste:

Crisp white wines taste of citrus fruit and leave a feeling on your mouth similar to that of drinking fresh lime or lemon juice mixed with water. You feel the acidity on the sides of your tongue with a bit of pucker in your mouth and little lingering fruity taste.  

These wines are full of citrus, green apple, gooseberry, grapefruit, and sometimes mineral aromas and flavours. Crisp, dry white wines make a great pairing with seafood and are great for sipping on hot summer days. See my post on  What Wine to Buy Instead of Chardonnay for crisp, clean white wine suggestions.  

Wines to Try

My all-time favourite in this category is Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.

Dry and Minerally White Wines

Mineral and herbaceous are terms used for white wines to describe aromas and flavours in white wine that remind you of earthy minerals and green herbs. Minerally and herbaceous white wines are generally not oaked so as to retain the fresh mineral, flinty and delicate herbal characteristics of the grapes and terroir (land on which the grapes are grown).

Wine Regions and Grapes Used:

Dry and minerally white wines tend to come from old-world regions (meaning old wine-producing countries mostly in Europe). These are the opposite of fruit-forward wines because the dry minerality aroma and flavour is more pronounced. With that said, there is loads of lingering fruit flavour in the earthy and herbaceous whites.  

Try Chablis again here because of it’s high mineral aroma and flavour or a dry Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre for it’s high minerality or a dry German Riesling or Verdichio from Italy.

Taste:

The predominant aroma and flavour is mineral, chalk, flint, slate, wet stones, and gravel. You can also detect vegetal aromas (think green peppers, asparagus) and herbaceous (meaning herbal aromas of lavender, pine, thyme, fresh cut grass etc). The less pronounced fruit flavours are similar to the crisp and clean whites: green apple, grapefruit, peach, lemon and lime and gooseberry.  

Aromatic and Fragrant White Wines (My favourites!)  

Aromatic wines give off lots of combined aromas of fruits, flowers and herbal notes. White wines in this category give you aromas of blossoms and flowers first rather than fruit or minerals. You’ll detect aromas of honeysuckle, spring blossoms, violet and flower petals followed by fruit aromas of apricots, peach and pears. Some have a little spice to them with notes of ginger. 

Wine Regions and Grapes Used:

My favourite white wines in this category are wines made with the Viognier grape from Condrieu in the northern Côtes du Rhône region or Languedoc-Rousillon in France. I recommend wines in this category in my post titled What Wines to Buy Instead of Chardonnay. I would put Sancerre wines in this category too. 

Taste:

Fragrant wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape in Sancerre, France are dry, crisp, minerally and fragrant. Aromatic Riesling wines can give floral and flinty aromas with pear and nectarine flavours. Viognier can offer aromas of honeysuckle, pear and peaches. See my post on  What Wines to Drink Instead of Chardonnay for more about these types of wines.

Aromatic and fragrant white wines are perfect to enjoy with grilled fish including salmon, trout sea bass or haddock or with roast chicken or turkey and of course with cheeses – especially goat cheese, brie, camembert and feta.

Try the following:

Torrontés:  Santa Balbo Crios from Argentina, $11.95

A dry white wine with aromas of apricots, rose petals, lemon zest and peach. It’s a dry white wine with some minerality and a nice citrus fruit aftertaste. A very easy, refreshing, crisp white wine at a great price.

Viognier 2014, The Y Series, Yalumba, Australia white, $16.95

This is a really lovely aromatic and acidic white wine at a great price offering a nose of honeysuckle and pear with some peach and hints of pineapple.

Riesling:  Willm $17.95 on sale right now for $15.95

I’m really enjoying this Riesling and I haven’t had one for a while. It offers a lovely nose of fresh cut limes with flinty, chalky floral aromas, pear and nectarine. At first sip there might be a bit of effervescence on the tongue. It’s well balanced with a nice lemony dry finish. Warning: It’s very easy and enjoyable to drink!

Oaky and Buttery White Wines:

Fans of oaky, buttery white wines tend to love Chardonnay, white Burgundy wines and Chardonnay wines from California.  

The green Chardonnay grape is one of the most popular grape varieties used to make white wine in countries all over the world. It originated in Burgundy, France and the regions of Chablis, Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Macon, Macon-Villages, Pouilly-Fuisse in Burgundy produce some of the most famous Chardonnay wines. Other famous Chardonnay-producing regions include California, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Chile and Argentina. Each wine can taste quite different depending on where it comes from – the climate, the geography of the location and the way in which the wine is made. 

 In more moderate climates like Burgundy, you might detect aromas of “stone fruit” including peach with citrus and melon aromas. If you’re choosing a wine from the warmer regions like California and Australia you might like the aromas of peach, banana, pineapple, mango and possibly fig.

Chardonnay wine that has been stored in oak barrels before being bottled develops additional flavours of wood, vanilla, butter, caramel and baked apple pie – flavours that come from the oak being in contact with the wine.  The wine may also appear more golden in colour. The oak can give the Chardonnay a creamy, smooth texture.

If you like toasty.oaky, creamy, full-bodied white wine, try Decoy Chardonnay, La Crema Chardonnay, Simi Chardonnay all from California or try some French white Burgundies which are more expensive but so spectacular including Meursault (pronounced Mer-so) and Puligny-Montrachet (pronounced Poo-lee-nyee Mon-ra-shay). My favourite producer of both is Maison Joseph Drouhiin Burgundy.

Stay tuned for my next post on red wine personalities and moods. 

What to drink instead of Chardonnay?

What do you buy and serve the wine lover who hates Chardonnay? You’d be surprised how many people won’t drink a Chardonnay wine because of its often heavily oaked flavour. Many new-world, bargain-priced Chardonnays are over “oaked” which means oak essence or oak chips are added to soak in the wine while it sits in stainless steel tanks. This is a far cheaper alternative to properly aging Chardonnay wine in American or French oak barrels. It is for this reason that mass-produced, cheap Chardonnay can give the grape a bad name. 

There are many alternatives to Chardonnay, which in France is grown and produced in Burgundy according to traditional, old-world methods. For this post I’m going to focus on other grape varieties grown in France including:

·      Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre in the Loire Valley;

·      Chenin Blanc from Vouvray also in the Loire Valley;

·      Viognier from the northern Rhône Valley in France.

What is Sancerre?

Sancerre is a small wine-producing region located on the left bank of the Loire River in the eastern part of the Loire Valley in France. It is across the river from Pouilly-Fumé, another famous wine region. Sancerre is considered a cool-climate region meaning short, hot summers with longer, cold winters. Here, the Sauvignon Blanc vines are planted in gravel, limestone and flinty soils.  The soil type influences the vine and the grapes and eventually comes through in the aromas and taste of the wine. It's the soil that brings out the flinty, mineral or stone aromas in wine.  The vines in Sancerre are planted in soils that produce crisp and acidic, lighter-bodied wines with perfumed and sometimes mineral aromas. 

The climate and terroir (this is the term that describes the geography of where the grapes are grown including the weather, soils, and exact location of the vineyard) create Sauvignon Blanc wines that are dry and aromatic (meaning lots of perfumed aroma when you smell the wine), with subtle and balanced flinty, smoky and fruit flavours – think gooseberry, peaches and grapefruit. To keep the wine concentrated on the natural characteristics of the grape and terroir, these wines are generally not aged in oak barrels (because oak barrels produce other compounds and flavours in the wine like vanilla, toast and oak flavours).

Pouilly-Fumé, located across the river from Sancerre, also produces Sauvignon Blanc wines similar in style to the Sancerre wines perhaps with a little more body to them. Don’t confuse Pouilly-Fumé with Pouilly-Fuissé which is an area within the Mâconnais region of Burgundy that produces 100% Chardonnay wines.

What is Vouvray and Chenin Blanc?

Vouvray is another wine-producing region located on the right bank of the Loire River and situated east of the city of Tours. Vouvray is the home of the Chenin Blanc grape – a green-skinned grape used to make Chenin Blanc wine. Chenin Blanc wine is characterized by its aromas of apricots, honey and white flowers and flavours of honey, apricot, pear, apples, fig and even ginger. It is a crisp and naturally acidic wine.

When buying Vouvray or Chenin Blanc, look for Sec or Dry on the label.  Chenin Blanc is categorized from the driest wines, labeled Sec with high acidity offering a little residual sweetness, to Demi-Sec wines which are riper and definitely sweeter, to the sweetest wines labeled Moelleux.  Because of its naturally high acidity, Vouvray wines can age very well in the bottle given the right cellar conditions. 

What is Viognier?

Viognier wine is quite different to Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, in fact, it’s more like full-bodied Chardonnay but with more fragrant, floral and herbal aromas. One of my friends, a non-Chardonnay drinker, said to me that enjoying Viognier wine reminds her of honeysuckle, blossoms and bees! What a nice thought! Viognier is known for its aromas of chamomile, honeysuckle, apricot and flavours of peach and pear.

Viognier is a green-skinned grape that grows in the Condrieu region of the northern Rhône Valley in France. It’s also grown and produced in California, Australia, Spain, Italy and Argentina. You can enjoy Viognier with a number of different foods from Thai food and spicy asian dishes to salads, seafood, chicken and cheese.

Good Viognier can be expensive because of the particularities with growing and harvesting the grapes. The grape needs a long, warm ripening season with just the right amount of sun and warmth – a climate that’s too hot will elevate the sugars in the grape and cancel out the fragrant, aromatic qualities of the wine.

On her web site, Jancis Robinson says: “Cheap Viogniers, especially but not exclusively basic Pays d'Oc wines, have such strangely cosmetic aromas, more reminiscent of air freshener than anything that grows in the ground, that I have been tempted to think that an artificial flavouring has been used. “ I love the way she describes wine! Choose carefully.

Watch for my follow up post to this one where I will sample Vouvray, Viognier and Chenin Blanc wines from France to let you know the best ones to buy at the LCBO  - budget no more than $30 a bottle.