What’s the Next Off-Dry White Varietal?

Posted by Alan Boehmer Aug 25, 2006

Most New World wineries that feature tasting rooms like to offer a spectrum of wines aimed to please a spectrum of visitors. The usual lineup includes a dry white (usually Sauvignon Blanc), Chardonnay, an off-dry white, perhaps a rosé, along with several reds. This lineup has remained relatively unchanged over the past several decades. The main difference over the years has been in the off-dry offering.

In the 70s, the most common off-dry varietal offered in winery tasting rooms was Gewurztraminer. It appealed to people not ready for truly dry white wines and those intimidated by the higher price of Chardonnay. Winery tasting rooms needed a wine in this category and Gewurztraminer

filled the bill. Riesling was also frequently offered, mostly by wineries not choosing to produce Gewurztraminer.

But the Gewurztraminers of that period were not particularly attractive wines, tasting more like inexpensive jug wine than the fine wine that they might have been. In California there were no great examples to be found. There still aren't any.

Riesling, when available, was usually priced higher than Sauvignon Blanc, and slightly lower than Chardonnay (a wine inherently more expensive to make). It failed to attract a devoted audience, particularly in California.

The next candidate for an affordable off-dry white wine was Muscat. New World wineries almost always opted for the more pedigreed Muscat Canelli, rather than Muscat of Alexandria or other variants. These wines were relatively inexpensive and outperformed typical New World Gewurztraminer in the eyes of many consumers. Muscat Canelli held the top off-dry position for about two decades and is still offered by some wineries. But at the recent Family Winemakers of California tasting in San Francisco, not a single example of Muscat could be found, with over 400 wineries participating! California Muscat has gone the way of Gewurztraminer (there were 10 examples of Gewurztraminer presented).

To be sure, both Muscat and Gewurztraminer are outstanding varietals and compelling examples are easily found - just not in California.

So what's next? Twenty-seven wineries at the San Francisco tasting offered Pinot Grigio. We think this is probably the current contender for an easy drinking, relatively inexpensive off-dry white in California tasting rooms. Unfortunately, many examples are flaccid, soft wines that have little appeal to serious wine lovers. But there are some notable exceptions.

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