White Grapes
The list of white grape varieties Seven Fields grows and manages is below. Each grape has a unique flavour and characteristics that contribute to the flavour of the wine they are used to produce.
Chardonnay
This is one of the most versatile grape varieties, which can be used in both sparkling and still wine. Its aroma is distinct, yet delicate. It often smells like apples, lemons, peaches or tropical fruits. Chardonnay is often described as having a "fleshy", "buttery" quality. Chardonnay is unmistakable in the mouth because of its impeccable sugar/acid balance, its full body, and its easy smoothness. Chardonnay berries are relatively small, thin-skinned, fragile, and oxidize easily. This makes chardonnay somewhat more sensitive to winemaking techniques and more difficult to handle from harvest to bottling than most other grape types.
Muscat
Muscat is a very ancient variety and, with its strong and distinctive perfume, it was probably one of the first to be identified and cultivated. Muscat produces, with subtle variation, wines with the distinct, intense, aromatic, sweet, and easily-recognized scent of muscat that actually taste like grapes, which is unusual for most varieties. Muscat, in fact, can be cultivated as table grapes, as well as for making wine.
Sauvignon Blanc
The varietal identity of Sauvignon Blanc is typically similar to grass, bell-pepper, or grapefruit in nature. New Zealanders liken it to "gooseberry". Sauvignon Blanc is usually quite distinctive and one of the easier varietal wines to recognize by its often sharp, aggressive smell. Sauvignon Blanc vines tend to be quite vigorous growers, so it is especially important to manage the canopy by careful pruning. Unrestrained growth and over-cropping result in neutral-tasting wines of little interest.
Semillon
The ripe semillon berry is a rich yellow colour at maturity. In warmer climates, there is always danger of sunburn and raisining. When processed as a dry or semidry table wine, the thin skins and tender, juicy pulp require speedy but gentle handling. Semillon grapes are also used in the popular dessert wine know as a "Botrytis" style, the noble rot which concentrates the sugars and flavours and intensifies the aromas.
Traminer (or Gewurztraminer)
Traminer is one of the most pungent wine varietals, easy to recognize by its heady, aromatic scent. The berries, with their thick and tough skins, can attain high sugar levels of amazing concentration. While the French have achieved the greatest success with this grape and its name may be German, the history of Gewürztraminer began in Italy's Tyrollean Alps, near the village of Termeno (Tramin) in Alto Adige.
Verdelho
Verdelho has been cultivated in Portugal since at least the 1400s. It is one of the grapes long used in the making of Madeira. This variety is used there to make both dry table wines and sweet, fortified wines. The table wines produced from Verdelho tend to be tart and lemony, crisp and refreshing, with a relatively good body.