The other day I was looking online for wine country gift baskets that specialised in light white wines and came up with the following ideas. When the menu calls for an unoaked, dry aromatic light wine to go with seafood, fish, creamy pasta or salads there is an ever increasing range of styles to experience. Most make mouth-watering aperitifs to go with these types of food as long as they are served suitably well chilled. Looking firstly at Italian wines, there is a particularly wide choice, such as Frascati, Soave, Verdicchio and Pinot Grigio. At the cheaper end of the market these unoaked, fresh light wines tend to be on the bland side; so splash out a few more dollars and secure a premium Italian white wine with a fuller, fruity flavour.
Moving north into German wine country, the wonderfully refreshing and elegantly dry Rieslings are well worth some sampling. After several decades of being regarded as a bit untrendy, especially in terms of Liebfraumilch, the modern whites show definite signs of a revival in taste and popularity. Riesling has a crisp tanginess, lowish alcohol levels and a clear apple and lemon flavour, and at the top level, it's clear elegance is very hard to beat. Indeed the perfect aperitif wine or the ideal companion to that fish meal. If you find you like Riesling from Germany , move on to one from Austria , or even a riper, lime drenched Australian version. Consider a wine country tour to savour the delights of this area.
If French wine country is your fancy the mouth-watering bone-dry Sauvignon Blancs from Sancerre and Pouilly - Fumé in the Loire Valley provide the classic French light, refreshing white, albeit at a price. Cheaper, but only in terms of price, Sauvignon de Touraine uses the same grapes in the same region with similar flavours. Other light white wines can be found in the south and south-west of France , such as Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne which is a cheap easily quaffable party white, Bergerac Blanc and the inexpensive, lighter Bordeaux whites. Also try the aromatic, slightly spicy, unoaked whites from Alsace in north-eastern France , an area amply covered by the many online wine country tour operators.
Moving out of Europe , and into hotter wine countries, the whites tend to be more heavily perfumed and, as a result, taste richer and somewhat riper. However there is a clear exception to this rule and that is the refreshing well-balanced South African Sauvignon Blancs and the CheninBlanc that offers an unoaked, lime and guava fruit flavoured party wine. Last but certainly not least consider a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. This modern classic has a very distinctive style, giving a rich aroma and a peculiarly gooseberry flavour, but still fits snugly in to the category of an unoaked, pure ,fruity style of white wine. All these wines are available online as wine country gift baskets. If California wine country or Oregon wine country is more acceptable then there are many online wine country vacations and wine country tours that visit such exotic places as the Paso Robles wine country. For the best in wine country accommodation and wine country inns then an online search is a must.
