Our wine expert guides you through the most popular white grape varieties

Now that you know the logistics of how to taste wine, you’ll need some pointers on where to start. One of the key influences on a wine’s flavour is the grape variety from which it is made. Just as different varieties of say, apples or oranges, have markedly different flavours so, too, do grapes.

For your first wine-tasting, line up one wine from each of the following key grape varieties. That way you can compare and contrast them and decide which you like. If you then decide, for example, Sauvignon Blanc is a favourite, for your next tasting you could select, say, four examples from around the world and note the differences.

Taste the wines in this order as they go from dry to sweet.

Sauvignon Blanc
This is most famous for producing the dry white wine Sancerre from France’s Loire Valley.

Flavour. Stick your nose in a glass of this and you’re likely to imagine gooseberries, freshly cut grass and, yes, believe it or not, cat pee. This is one of the most distinctive white grape varieties and once you have it in your taste/smell memory, you are unlikely to forget it – your friends will be impressed by your new blind tasting skills. Sauvingon Blanc produces dry white wines with a really refreshing, mouth-watering fruit flavour. If the wines have been matured in oak, they become richer with creamy and vanilla overtones. Sauvignon Blanc goes well with mild fish such as turbot, plaice, halibut and cod, as well as seafood like prawns and scallops. It also makes a delicious aperitif.

Where in the world? As well as the French examples from the Loire and Bordeaux (where it is also used for the sweet wine Sauternes), look out for examples from the Languedoc Roussillon region. New Zealand now produces some of the very finest, most delicious, hard-to-resist Sauvignon Blanc wines around. It is also widely grown in Australia, California, Chile, Argentina and South Africa.

Chardonnay
This is probably the world’s most famous white grape variety. It’s responsible for all those expensive but sexy white burgundies such as Chablis and Puligny Montrachet.

Flavour. Chardonnay has many guises and although the wines are always dry, styles vary from light to full-bodied. Unoaked examples tend to have a flavour similar to whitecurrants. But examples of Chardonnay grown in hotter climates such as Australia tend to be much richer and fatter with buttery, peachy and tropical fruit overtones. When these wines are aged in wood they become richer still, with honeyed, buttery, creamy overtones. These wines all show best with food, especially poultry (chicken, turkey and guinea fowl), and also fish, particularly fish pie. An oaked Chardonnay is a good match for highly flavoured smoked fish – try it with a smoked mackerel pâté.

Where in the world? Historically prevalent throughout France, Chardonnay now flourishes just about everywhere. Look out for value-for-money examples from Bulgaria, South Africa, Spain, and richer, more full-bodied wines from Australia, California and South America.

Riesling
One of Germany’s top grape varieties, this is often undervalued as people don’t really understand it. It should be pronounced ‘Reece-ling’ rather than ‘Rice-ling’.

Flavour. This can produce both dry and sweet wines. The wines are quite viscous or oily and have a slightly musky or almost petrolly aroma with a citrus tang of acidity on the palate. As the grape is quite an oily one, Riesling wines pair with oily food: goose, duck, pheasant, mackerel, sardines and red mullet.

Where in the world? Originally Germany. Increasingly being planted in California, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Chile and Argentina.

Gewurztraminer This is a grape people either love or hate. It’s mostly known for the wines produced in the Alsace region of Northern France.

Flavour. This grape variety always reminds me of Turkish Delight. It has an enticing aroma and flavour reminiscent of rose petals and exotic tropical fruit salad. The wines, whilst immediately fruity, can vary from off dry through to quite sweet. The sweetest of them all will have words like ‘late harvest’, or ‘vendange tardive’ on the label. These taste great with fruity puddings and oriental food, particularly Chinese or Thai.

Where in the world? Predominantly Alsace and Germany, though other countries are now beginning to plant Gewurztraminer. These include New Zealand, California, South Africa and Chile.

Part 1: getting started
Part 3: red wines
Part 4: champagne and sparkling wine