What Wine With Your Fish? Part I - Varieties

When you start to see more and more varieties of wine, and some that actually cost more than a hundred dollars for a bottle at a supermarket, you know that wine is here to stay. With more choices available, it is sometimes rather confusing for someone who is simply looking for a bottle to share over a fish dish.

Being anglers ourselves, we understand what the priorities are - hooking and fighting the fish of course! But if you do decide to cook your catch and perhaps enjoy it with a glass of wine, it will be great if you can make a reasonably suitable pairing without having to do copious amounts of research and reading. However, it wouldn't hurt if you can tell your friends about the difference between your Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc after reading our blog!

As white wine is more often paired with seafood, let us first look at the types of grapes used to make them:

White Grape/Wine Varieties
While there are more than 50 types of grapes that can be used for making wine, here's the most commonly seen 8 of them. All the following can be found on the shelves as wine made only from that specific variety.

1. Chardonnay (sha-duh-nay)
   
2. Sauvignon Blanc (So-vee-yon blahng)
3. Riesling (rees-ling)
   
4. Sémillon (say-me-yon)
   
5. Chenin Blanc (sher-nan blahng)
   
6. Pinot Gris / Pinot Grigio (pi-no-gree / pi-no gri-joe)
   
7. Gewurztraminer (guh-vurts-tra-me-ner)
8. Viognier (vee-ohn-yay)

Other White Wine Varieties
You can make more than 1 type of wine with a grape varietal, and some wines are made with a blend of more than 1 type of grapes.

Also made from chardonnay grapes:

• Chablis (sha-blee)
• Pouilly-Fuissé (poo-yee fwee-say)

Blended Wine Varieties

• White Bordeaux (bore-dough) - Sauvignon Blanc + Sémillon

Ok so far? Now you should be able to remember the names of a few popular white wines. Do scoot over the the wine section the next time you go to the supermarket and check them out, see how many of those mentioned above you can find!