The universe of alternative French whites is significantly broader than for reds and thus offers more opportunities for pairing with food.

The Alsatian region in far northeast France, bordering Germany, has built a traditional reputation for producing very food friendly rich, dry white wines.  However, in recent years, the tendency has been to produce more sweet wine.  The grapes are a mixture of French, German and some exotic varieties.  The four grapes, Gewurztraminer, German Riesling, Pinot Gris and Muscat produced namesake wine that define this region separated from the rest of France by the Vosges mountain range.

The Alsatian Gewurztraminer is a very aromatic, medium bodied wine with characteristically citrus, floral, spice and lychee scents and aromas.  The grape distinguishes itself in Alsace, however, by exhibiting a distinctly spicy personality.  This wine works beautifully with spicy Asian, Chinese, Thai and Indian cuisine, some cheeses, curries, duck, pork, ham and turkey, tropical fruits such as mango, papaya, guava and passion fruit, ginger spiced foods.  Late harvest wines (Vendange Tardive) portray a very sweet character with a touch of acidity and offer a wonderful balance of honey, apricot and fig and pair well with fruit, cheeses or foie gras.  Amongst the high profile, high quality producers, look for Zind Humbrecht.

Alsatian Riesling, despite being a bit heavier in alcohol and driven by more fruit and minerality than its German cousin, is still one of the most food friendly whites around.  The wine tends to be dry, clean, graceful and well balanced.  They radiate aromas of apple, citrus, peach and a flowery scent in their youth, developing more of a sense of minerality as they age.  The wines pair brilliantly with seafood, shellfish, chicken, pork, smoked ham, cold meats and of course the traditional sauerkraut.  Late harvest wines are occasionally produced and pair exquisitely with fruit based desserts.  Trimbach and Humbrecht are names to look for.

Pinot Gris, found widely both in Alsace and Oregon (now the most widely planted white in Oregon), is a mutation of the Pinot Noir grape.  The wines from Alsace tend to be medium-full bodied, dry and floral.  As with the Gewurztraminer, the Pinot Gris is often very spicy.  These are very food friendly wines pairing especially well with antipasto dishes, cheeses, chicken, fish, shellfish and seafood and mildly spicy dishes.  As well, don’t omit the late harvest wine which pairs ideally with fruit and nut based desserts.  Names such as Hugel & Fils, Humbrecht, and Trimbach should be on you radar screen.

Muscat grapes, which comes in several varieties, were probably the first to be discovered many centuries ago.  The Muscat found in Alsace tends to be bone dry, with fresh and crisp fruitiness, reminiscent of biting into a young grape and carries a low alcohol content; is this in contrast to those of southern France which can be very sweet and carry alcohol levels of 15-20%.  The two varieties found in Alsace are Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains or Muscat d’Alsace and Muscat Ottonel.  Most wines are a blend of the two.  It is the former that imparts an orange peel-flowery and spice aroma to the wine.  Muscat is renown as a dessert wine.  It works beautifully with cheeses, chocolate, and fruit based desserts.  Can you imagine a dried orange peel coated in dark chocolate with a sip of Muscat?

Pinot Blanc (Bianco in Italy) is a mutation of the Pinot Gris and offers aromas of apple and melon.  It tends to be a full bodied wine with good acidity and spiciness and meant for near term enjoyment.  The wine pairs well with chicken, pork, shellfish, fish such as salmon or halibut, spicy cuisine, turkey and pasta.

Let’s move on to the Loire Valley which boasts world class alternative whites.  Chenin Blanc is arguably the Loire’s most important grape.  It produces four distinctly different styles of wine: dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling.  The grape is characterized by generous acidity as it receives sufficient sunlight and high sugar content.  If there’s one downfall in the production of these wines, with the exception of the late harvest or botrytized wines, it’s the inconsistency of harvested grape selection and winemaking.  Therefore, if you select one of these whites, go with what you know and like or seek assistance to target a quality producer.  The “typical” Chenin Blanc tends to be light to medium bodied with crisp acidity and works a wonder with Asian or Chinese food, other spicy dishes, fish and shellfish (especially sautéed with lemon), salads with an acidic dressing and chicken, pork and other poultry dishes.  The late harvest style of this wine can be, at its best, smooth, sweet and elegant, pairing seemlessly with apple, banana or other rich fruit desserts.  Remember, if you see names on the label such as Vouvray, Monlouis sur Loire, Savennieres (which can yield some the longest lived dry whites in the world) and Coteaux du Layon, these are appellations that all use the Chenin Blanc grape.  What a wonderful way to wrap up an elegant dinner.  A few of the names that I like are Francois Chidaine, Des Baumard, and Nicolas Joly.

While Sauvignon Blanc most certainly is not an alternative grape, many may not realize its role in the Loire.  The fact is that its home lies in this region, especially in the Central Vineyards, and thus serves as a model for the grape variety worldwide.  These wines tend to be bone dry, with gooseberry or even tart peaches, a “gunsmoke” character and a steely dry finish.  Look for  wine from appellations such as Pouilly Fume and Sancerre and producers such as Henri Bourgeois, Pascal Cotat and Didier Dagueneau.

Exposed to the climate of the Atlantic on the western end of the Loire, lies Nantais, renown for the Muscadet grape (also known as Melon de Bourgogne and Gamy Blanc, just to make things confusing).  The wine from Muscadet is, on the whole, rather neutral in flavor, high in acidity and freshness and bone dry.  Some characteristics such as fruit flavor and liveliness are enhanced through longer contact with its sediment (sur lie) producing a wine with more white fruit flavor and yeastiness and retention of carbonic gas retained through fermentation.  It is clearly not a wine to compete with the likes of Chardonnay.  If there is any downfall to the wine, it’s the challenge to impart fruit flavor.  These wines are made to pair with shellfish and salads with a vinaigrette dressing.

Aligote is considered to by Burgundy’s “alternative” white grape.  It’s wine tends to be light and acidic but in good vintage years, ripeness can soften the acidity.  As you might imagine, the wine works well with lighter seafood and shellfish.

While I said that I was not going to include Bordeaux, it is worth noting that White Bordeaux, a blend of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and a few lesser known grape varieties, is a wonderfully light-medium bodied wine that pairs superbly with fish and shellfish.  It usually emits notes of honey, apple and creamy lemon and is a great alternative to a traditional Sauvignon Blanc.  Keep your eye peeled for some of the higher quality names such as Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte and snag one or two.  They’ll probably run you $45-55.

Semillon wine alone tends to be a medium bodied white, usually from the Graves region of Bordeaux and works well with roasted chicken, fish, lighter meats, porks, seafood and shellfish and spicy dishes.  As an aside, other regions have embraced the Semillon grape with success such as Australia.

Chablis (OK, I strayed again but it’s worth it) is a light-medium bodied Chardonnay from Burgundy and is another one of those wines that seems to fly under the radar screen of most consumers.  These wines offer a dry minerality and a lemon/peach character, suggesting a beautiful match with light fish and shellfish, roasted chicken and vegetables.  Other less profiled whites outside of the main Cote d’Or region of Burgundy that I tend to think of as “alternative” include those from the Maconnais region of southern Burgundy, namely Macon, Macon Villages, Pouilly-Fuisse, and St Veran.  All are from the Chardonnay grape variety and often tend to be ignored despite their quality and uniqueness.  Some Chablis names are Brocard, Baillard, Dauvissat, Drouhin, Droin, Fevre, Leflaive, and Raveneau.  Other names in the Maconnais region are Droin, Drouhin, Girardin, Leflaive, Greffiere, and Rollet.

Before we depart Burgundy, allow me to mention Meursault, a Cote de Beaune region (and namesake Chardonnay) that produces stellar wine and at a fraction of the cost of high end whites such as Montrachet or Corton-Charlemagne.  Pricing will run, on average, between $70-$110.  Look for Leflaive and Bouchard Pere & Fils as producers. 

Viognier is a grape (and wine) that is most certainly on the list of alternative grapes and wines.  It’s unique quality is that it presents a distinct floral and allspice character intertwined with notes of peach and pear.  The grape is found largely in the northern reaches of Rhone in Condrieu and is a perfect match for foods accented with fruit sauces (i.e., chicken, pork, seafood and even a tender filet mignon with a citrus hollandaise sauce, thereby blowing the age old theory of only reds with beef!!).  The best of these wines can be a little pricy at $50+ but it’s worth the experience.

While reds come to mind when Chateauneuf du Pape is mentioned, the white version is simply lovely, comprised of a blend of several white grapes, most of which I would consider to be an alternative wine, namely Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Bourboulenc, Picpoul and Clairette.  Grenache Blanc can produce a rich a full bodied white.  Rousssanne has an herbal tea aroma with great acidity.  Bourboulenc offers fine acidity and a hint of smoke.  Picpoul (translated: lip stinger) exhibits prominent acidity and flavors of apple, peach, pear and, at time, a little spice. Clairette can exhibit peach, melon and stone in a simple presentation. It’s a wine worth placing on your alternative “wish list.”  As you might well imagine, the character of the wine changes slightly according to the relative proportions of grapes but the finished product yields a wonderfully alternative white of high quality with aromas of honeysuckle, almond, glue, stones, clementine, stony peach, and persimmon.

White Hermitage, from Marsanne and Roussanne grapes only, deserves mention here if for no other reason than that they are magnificent wines, many considered to be collectibles.  While some may carry a price tag in the $60 range, the collectible variety can run over $200.  The flavors and aromas are simply amazing with fruits of freshly picked apples and melon, orange blossom, persimmon, honey and almonds and sometimes a touch of butter.  If you are lucky enough to get your hands on one of these wines, pair it with pungent cheese, shellfish (especially lobster), pork, veal and chicken.  These wines can be laid down for many years to come.

Experiment with some of these alternative whites.  You’ll discover new flavor and aroma pairings and perhaps think about adding one or two of these wines to your regular menu.

Tags: Aligote, Alsace, Australia, Baillard, Bourboulenc, Bourchard Pere & Fils, Bourgeois, Brocard, Burgundy, Chablis, Chardonnay, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chenin Blanc, Chidaine, Clairette, Corton-Charlemagne, Cotat, Cote d'Or, Cote de Beaune, Dagueneau, Dauvissat, Des Baumard, Droin, Drouhin, Fevre, Gewurztraminer, Grenache Blanc, Hugel & Fils, Humbrecht, Joly, Leflaive, Loire, Macon, Maconnais, Meursault, Monlouis sur Loire, Montrachat, Muscadet, Muscat, Nantais, Picpoul, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pouilly Fuisse, Pouilly-Fume, Raveneau, Rhone, Riesling, Roussanne, Sancerre, Sauvignon Blanc, Savennieres, Semillon, Smith Haut Lafitte, St. Veran, Trimbach, Viognier, Vouvray, white Bordeaux, white Hermitage