For The Love Of Port

As the weather is warming up ... although we've yet to see 80 degrees here, the white wines will start to flow. What are some of your favorite grapes or white wine types and even regions or producers ... outside of Portugal?

We just had a Gary Farrell Chardonay from Sonoma county / Russian River Valley yesterday. It was yummy :)

Riesling fiend, Alsace, Austria, Germany, even Australia.
Huge fan of Trimbach and Weinbach in Alsace, Hirtzberger and Prager in Austria, JJ Prum (and many others) in Germany, and Grosset in Australia.

So far this alleged spring and summer (the weather has been mostly autumnal) I've been exploring the Loire: Chateau de Varennes and Domaine des Baumard's Clos du Papillon (q.v.) and Clos Ste. Yves (all Savennieres), Pascal Cotat's La Grande Cote in Sancerre, some Pouilly Fume by Domaine Laporte, and Ch. Gaudrelle in Vouvray. They have all over-delivered on price. I am on the verge of becoming as much of a Loire fan as of Alsace.

At some point I want to try Chateauneuf du Pape blanc too.

It's winter in my part of the world so there isn't a lot of white wine consumption going on in my house at the moment, but in the summer months I am partial to a Riesling - mostly Australian as the QPR is really good, but occasionally I thow in some German stuff. I also like a bit of Arneis and recently bought some Hunter Valley Semillon to put down for 10 or so years as aged Hunter semillon is a pretty special thing.

No Portuguese? There is wine from other places?

Bubbles and lots of them. Bring on the Champagne in the summer <<<(just pretend the red wine is white)

Someone mentioned the Trader Joe's domestic sparkling wine was pretty decent goven the price. I just picked one up last week and will open it in the next couple days and see for myself if it's worth getting more.

Andy Velebil wrote:Someone mentioned the Trader Joe's domestic sparkling wine was pretty decent goven the price. I just picked one up last week and will open it in the next couple days and see for myself if it's worth getting more.

I like Lucien Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace Brut for cheap sparkler. Kirkland/Costco Champagne is a pretty good value too, but I like it better once it has been cellared for 3-4 years.

My favorite expression of white wine rests with the Chardonnay grape, followed by Riesling. Given my druthers, Meursault will always be my favorite, followed closely by Chablis. I love their personality and minerality and ability to pair with so many of the foods that I eat, especially in summer. But Riesling is a serious runner up for me during the past 20+ years. I used to be in a tasting group in which we met once per month at a great Thai restaurant with either Alsatian or German Riesling, with the rare "ringer" coming from WA State which makes some fairly killer bargain based Riesling.

Here's a well written article on Chardonnay, not just your basics, either: http://unfilteredunfined.com/?p=2240&ut ... dium=email

Now that I've got that off my chest, in the past five years, since the 2005 Niepoort Redoma Branco Reserva was released in 2007 (although I had this in 2006 as a barrel sample too) I have had great enthusiasm for the white wines of Douro. Dirk's is still by far the best and in addition to this and the regular bottling of Reserva, Niepoort's Riesling and especially the Tiara and newer "Coche" projectos have been exemplary bottlngs.

Niepoort is not the only fine producer. Kopke and Crasto are both making very fine whites, along with Wine & Soul and a handful of others. The Altano represents good QPR and the Altano Reserva even better, but I have to ask why with 25+ quintas, the Symingtons are not making a white wine that can blow all the others away in Douro? I am still hoping that they will go upscale from here with their white selections and come up with a fantastic upper tier white cuvee.

Additionally, the Vinho Verde region has stepped up its game in the past decade. Having explored several wineries there, it is fascinating to taste the diversity of the wines, grapes used ... no longer solely Alvarinho that gets all the attention ... and the quality at the above 15 Euros/bottle available from there. A few GREAT producers have emerged and will hopefully make their way to the USA too!

I can't claim that I try a lot of other regions white wines in Portugal, but have had some fine ones from Quinta da Lapa in the Tejo, and a few really solid ones from Alentejo and Dao regions too. For now, I am still trying as many as I can muster in Douro.

I can't say that I have a favorite white grape. There are many that I like. I think the one that captivated me the most was the ribolla gialla grape as expressed in Movia Lunar, which is produced in Slovenia.

There's no law against having a preference for Chardonnay over Riesling for sure. I still prefer the latter, but will never turn down a nice glass of Chard - especially if it's sparkling. On that score, I'll side with Roy without any hesitation.

I also agree that Portugese white is excellent too and offers a lot of value for money. That Crasto white at about $18 a bottle was a formidable bargain.

Andy Velebil wrote:No Portuguese? There is wine from other places?

Bubbles and lots of them. Bring on the Champagne in the summer <<<(just pretend the red wine is white)

Someone mentioned the Trader Joe's domestic sparkling wine was pretty decent goven the price. I just picked one up last week and will open it in the next couple days and see for myself if it's worth getting more.

I do buy a little bit of Portuguese white - I have a few bottles of the Dona Paterna Alvarinho which is fantastic, but there isn't that much Portuguese white around in Australia.
I'm not a huge fan of white bubbles, but I have tasted some great local (to me) stuff this year, particularly from House of Arras from Tasmania. I do drink a bit of Red Bubbles in summer. Yes, I know the rest of the world doesn't understand this

As for Chardonnay, I grew up in a wine region, where Chardonnay was king of the white grapes (and Pinot Noir for the reds) and I think we murdered it for a long time. It was either too heavily oaked or unoaked, neither of wich I cared for. As a result, I went for years without ever buying a bottle of Chardonnay. I finally tried a few a couple of years ago and was suprised at the dramatic improvement, so there is still hope!

Musar makes a great white wine and I also really like Savagnin used in Château-Chalon AOC or "vin jaune".