Discerning wine enthusiasts have, for many years now, looked to the wine enthusiast magazine for guidance on what is happening in the world of the wine enthusiast. With it's respected wine enthusiast reviews, wine enthusiast coupons and outstanding gifts for wine enthusiasts, the wine enthusiast magazine has been setting important trends in the enjoyment of wine by wine enthusiasts.
One of the most important of these recent trends has been the wine enthusiast magazines championing of light white wines, highlighting their wide variety of tastes and applications. 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 Germany , the wonderfully refreshing and elegantly dry Rieslings are well worth some sampling and these wines have been featured in the wine enthusiast magazine in their wine enthusiast wine master review. 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 its 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.
If French wine 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. Again this wine has featured in the wine enthusiast magazine feature on Charbay. 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, a sadly neglected group of wines by wine enthusiasts.
Moving out of Europe, and into hotter vineyard areas, 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 Chenin Blanc that offers an unoaked, lime and guava fruit flavoured party wine. Last, but certainly not leas, 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 into the category of an unoaked, pure, fruity style of white wine. Thankfully wine enthusiasts throughout the US now appreciate fully the versatility of these light white wines, with a little help from the wine enthusiast magazine and groups such as the Bay Area wine enthusiasts.
