New-wave white wines
Our choice of summer whites has grown, with far more adventurous grape varieties on the shelves than the usual sauv blancs and (yawn) pinot grigio. Varieties such as vermentino, furmint, pecorino and assyrtiko offer refreshing, mainly oak-free styles to slake one’s thirst.
From Italy’s Abruzzo region, good-value Cestino Pecorino 2017, Terre di Chieti (£5.99, Co-op) is a quaffing white, made from the zesty pecorino grape. Flavours of lemon and white peach match with light risotto.
Hungary’s furmint variety is often used to make dessert wine but Taste the Difference Dry Furmint 2016, Royal Tokaji (£10, Sainsbury’s) is a rarer, dry version with mineral freshness.
From the Greek island of Santorini, Atlantis 2017 (£12, Marks & Spencer) isn’t cheap, but this crisp, blossom-scented wine made from assyrtiko grapes…
