Other White Varietals & Blends
This is a growing part of the competition for both good reasons and bad. On one hand, it’s sad that Viognier, Gewürztraminer and Torrontés no longer justify the entry numbers to merit their own sections in this results book, and have been folded back into Other Whites as a result. Viognier, in particular, probably merits more backing from the people who enter the wines since our tasters generally found plenty to like here.
On the plus side, there are both fewer bad wines and more good wines within the actual Other Whites category itself. Since it’s basically where winemakers go to experiment, and is mostly made up of unusual varieties and oddball blends, that’s no mean achievement. As always, there was a fairly high level of rejection, but what was left was generally better than we were getting five years ago.
It was great to see our first flight of Koshu too. Few of our tasters were experts in this wine, but there was definitely far more stylistic variation than we were expecting.
All in all, then, this section is not a bad place to go exploring. Our teams have done the hard work of removing the bad stuff, so you can call in samples with confidence. There are interesting, well-priced tasting menu or by-the-glass offerings here.
From The Tasting Teams
‘These are not shy wines. Big on flavour, big on acidity. Too shouty for my taste.’ Nigel Lister, St. Swithins Wine Shippers
‘Quite interesting wines, varied and quite diverse. Overall very good.’ Victor Amaro, Quarter Bar at London Bridge Hotel
‘A real mixed bag of wines from all over. Good value and easy-drinking – the value is the key here.’ Andres Ituarte, team leader
‘Torrontés is an easy-drinking, by-the-glass, crowd-pleasing wine. With food it loses its varietal characteristics.’ Claire Love, Loves Consultancy
‘Whether oaked or unoaked, the Viogniers were all interesting. On this evidence I wouldn’t dismiss the New World for Viognier.’ Laurent Richet MS, team leader
‘People are beginning to drink Koshu now in restaurants, but we need proper Koshu styles in the market. There’s more work to be done from Japanese producers, to bring structure, depth and length.’ Diana Rollan, D&D London
‘The Other Whites was a really interesting flight with lots of different styles. The richness and fruit-forward flavours of the wines really stood out. Ones with better structure showed the best.’ Daniel Eriksen, Anglian Country Inns
‘I really enjoyed the Torrontés – they were really good value for money. People appreciate that it’s a very aromatic wine, with good pricing.’ Juan Manuel Marcos Perez, The Gilbert Scott Restaurant
‘There’s a place for Viognier on a wine list, but you need to know which one to pick.’ Lucie Hammerschmiedova, Portland Restaurant
‘Koshu is a grape variety that everyone talks about as up and coming, but then you never see it anywhere!’ Andres Ituarte, team leader