White wine evaluation

White wine colour can range from almost colourless through to yellow, depending on the age of the wine.Younger wines tend to be paler in colour. Some even exhibit a green tinge due to residual chlorophyll,whereas older wines and some oat wines may have a darker hue.

The aroma, flavour, taste, and mouthfeel attributes of white wine are very much dependent on the grape variety and wine style, as well as the climate of the particular wine region.

Lighter-bodied wines, such as Riesling and Sauvignon blanc, will usually exhibit varietal characters and crisp acidity, whereas fuller-bodied wines lend themselves to oak maturation and malolactic fermentation, so they might exhibit a combination of fruit and oak notes, softer acidity, and buttery or creamy textures. Certain white grape varieties-- for example, Riesling and Semillon-- can be cellared and, with time, will develop lovely toasty, honey, nutty,and caramel notes.

Aged white wines might not show a lot of fruit character, but they should still maintain their acid structure. My wine's pale straw in colour. It's still quite bright. The nose is medium intensity, and that's got a combination of green apple, citrus, honey, and lime notes and a hint of floral character, too. On the palette, it's got a light body, and it's really fruit-driven, so a combination of lime and green apple. It's got really crisp acidity and a hint of minerality on the finish.

The aroma, flavour, taste and mouthfeel attributes of white wine are very much dependent on grape variety and wine style, as well as the climate of the wine region. Lighter-bodied styles will tend to exhibit more varietal expression (i.e. fruit character) than complexity from winemaking (e.g. malo-lactic fermentation and/or oak maturation), albeit there are examples of complex light-bodied white wines (e.g. aged Riesling or Semillon). Fuller-bodied styles often combine both varietal expression and winemaking influence (e.g. oxidative handling of fruit, fermentation with wild yeast, malo-lactic fermentation, barrel fermentation/maturation, lees aging or bottle aging), so these wines might exhibit both fruit and developed characters.

Appearance:

from almost colourless or pale straw, sometimes with a green hue (for younger white wines), to deep yellow (for oaked or older white wines).

Aroma and flavour:

fruit characters (dependent on grape variety):

berry fruit (gooseberry, strawberry); citrus (grapefruit, lemon, lime); tree fruit (apple, apricot, peach, pear); floral (blossom, honeysuckle, rose, violet); tropical fruit (guava, lychee, melon, passionfruit, pineapple); vegetal (asparagus, capsicum, cucumber, cut grass, grassy, herbal, mint, tomato leaf); other (confectionary, musk, rosewater, perfumed).

developed characters:

allspice, bacon, caramel, cedar, charry, chocolate, cigar box ,cinnamon, clove, coconut, coffee, dusty, mocha, nutty, pencil shavings, resinous, roasted, spicy, sawdust, smoky, toasty, vanilla (oaked white wine); almond, biscuit, buttered toast, caramel, dried fruit, fig, hay, honey, kerosene, lanolin, nutty, quince, raisin, smoky, toasty, toffee, walnut (aged white wine).

Taste and mouthfeel:

The taste and texture of white wines very much depends on method of production and any influence from winemaking techniques (e.g. malo-lactic fermentation and/or barrel fermentation or maturation). Lighter-bodied white wines should exhibit crispy acidity, but fuller-bodied styles might have softer acid, and may exhibit buttery or creamy textures. Riesling can sometimes impart minerality, flinty, metallic or chalky characters; whereas some full-bodied styles can exhibit an oily texture and/or some alcoholic warmth.