Need help in selecting a white wine

[stevebody]

Also, beware the word "fume" (pron: Foo-May), a term invented by Robert Mondavi to denote an oaked Sauv Blanc. It's gained wide acceptance and is a sure sign that a little vanilla cream thang is goin' on. Must mention another fabulous white that A) is being grown more and more here in the US and B) is frequently, needlessly oak-soaked: Viognier. Viognier is the finicky, perverse Rhone grape from which the staggering French Condrieus are made. It's hard as heck to grow and no cinch to vinify but it's frequently richer and more voluptuous than any Chardonnay and has taken like a duck to water to our climate here in WA state. Why anyone would want to oak a grape like this one - which hardly needs the dose of warm/fuzzy - is beyond me but it's happening with almost every new one released. From WA, Doug McCrae at McCrae Vineyards makes a dazzling unoaked one that come sin at under $20. Worth looking for.

Lastly, much as I enjoy the obvious erudition and relative lack of wine-snob judgementalism evident in this forum, there seems to be a pervasive antipathy for the use of oak. Most times, I agree with that condemnation wholeheartedly but, in the case of a new wine drinker like yourself, I think the heaps of scorn upon oak is exactly the same as working some newbie's head about "fruit bombs", traditional vs. progressive, cork or screw-top, or any of the other current wine controversies. Sometimes - Gasp! - oak can be a nice touch. Certainly the use of oak is exactly the same thing as our national White Zin craze: a way of making wine taste a little more like all our beloved soda pops. Make up your own mind about the use of oak. Try to sample whites that are oaked and are not. If you find you prefer the oaked flavor, drink it unabashedly. All the scorn aside, oak ain't a crime, just a lifestyle twitch. I admit to my customers that I don't care for oak but I certainly know which ones taste better with it and how to talk it up. The worst thing anyone will do to you in your wine journey is lade you with their prejudices. Drink what you like and take any of our opinions with a large grain of salt.