Wines of the week: 7 late autumn whites

Despite some glorious, crisp and sunny days, it’s dark and mostly chilly of an evening now and the tendency for wine lovers is to enjoy a nice glass of red – its warming notes soothing the mind and body, particularly in front of the fire with some appropriately robust food. So far, so typically autumn.

But…. what of those of us who simply prefer a white with any foods, particularly if we are not, as is increasingly the case, regular meat eaters?

I love to cook big fish dishes at all times of the year, and while I might actually drink a lightly chilled red with certain types of fish when the weather is milder, it’s a full-bodied white that I’m going to serve with a grilled or roasted fish or when I’ve got friends over to eat, whether it’s fish on the table or just to offer an alternative to the red.

So the kind of whites we are looking for on these special-ish occasions are not going to be light and zesty pinots or sauvignons – you can keep those in the fridge for that after-work glass. No, what we need here are rounded, substantial whites with perhaps some oak and some barrel fermentation to give richness, depth and complexity. And, please, to be served just chilled, rather than icy cold.

First off, an astonishingly good Greek wine for special meals: Gaia Wild Ferment Assyrtiiko, Santorini 2018 (£29.42, corkingwines.co.uk; £34, vincognito.co.uk) which has genuine “wild” flavours, fermented with natural yeasts, aged in oak and acacia barrels on the island of Santorini, which produces Greece’s best white wines. So intense, complex and rich it almost “warms”, but bone dry, it needs to be sipped with prime fish like turbot, halibut steaks or John Dory.

Over on another volcanic Mediterranean island, the slopes around Etna in Sicily also produce sensational wines such as the Etna Bianco, Benanti, 2017 (£19.95, tanners-wines.co.uk; £22.99, sohowine.co.uk), made from the little known carricante grape, grown at 750m high, where altitude gives freshness and the soils incredible textures to the wine, with mouth filling, creamy pear and apple flavours; I wish I could have had a glass of this to match the richly savoury pasta with sardines and pine nuts I had in a Sicilian restaurant recently.

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Over in Alsace on the borders of France and Germany, the winters can be cold and the food appropriately hearty – think sausages, choucroute, roast meats and potato dumplings – yet the bulk of the wines produced locally and often eaten with such foods are whites like rieslings and gewurztraminer; their local version of coq au vin, another great warming dish, is made with riesling. The Gewurztraminer Classic, Hugel 2015 (£17.19 rannochscott.co.uk £18.95 winedirect.co.uk), from one of the region’s most reliable producers, is full of warming spice notes of cardamon and turmeric, lychees and rose petal aromas; thrillingly complex and equally at home with river fish like trout or salmon, pork and game, as well as Asian dishes.

With riesling, go for the richer, more concentrated styles and so I’m nipping over into Austria for a bottle from one of the best estates, the Rabl Schenkenbichl Riesling Reserve 2016 (£20.99, waitrosecellar.com), which is bone dry, rich, with concentrated tropical fruit flavours and a long, steely finish. Drink with roast pork with apple sauce or rabbit with mustard.

Now for three bottles for slightly less special occasions. Two other grapes that give meaty texture and richness to southern French white blends from the Rhone and Languedoc are roussanne and marsanne, here joined with grenache blanc and given some oak to add ever more body and complexity in the Domaine Gayda Figure Libre Freestyle Blanc 2015 (£13.69, jnwine.com) from one of the best little independent producers in the Languedoc and packed with tropical and stone fruits, with hints of honeysuckle and jasmine aromas. A scent of Mediterranean night to warm a chilly British evening.

Marsanne reaches its best individual expression in the wines of Tahbilk in the Nagambie Lakes region of Victoria in Australia, which are capable of great ageing, reaching riesling-style qualities of steely, petrol-flavoured richness; for a younger but still fulsome version try the lemon-and-pineapple-flavoured Tahbilk Marsanne 2014 (£11.66, twelvegreenbottleswine.co.uk) with all types of fish and chicken dishes. Staying in the southern hemisphere with another French grape re-invented in New World style, the Bellingham ‘The Bernard Series’ Viognier, Western Cape, 2018 (£13.49, or £8.99 if bought as part of mixed six bottle purchase, majestic,co.uk) is a crowd-pleaser from a reliable producer, where the grapes are fermented in French oak, delivering a host of tropical fruit flavours, spicy vanilla, pepper and cinnamon and the characteristic dry but honeyed notes of viognier. One for slightly more creamy dishes or anything with garlicky flavours.