Hastwell & Lightfoot White Wines

There are sometimes less but almost always more calories in a glass of white wine than there are millimetres in a piece of string ;) - seriously, it varies depending on the size of the pour, alcohol percentage and how much residual sugar is in the wine but on average, there are about 160 calories in a 175ml glass of white.

As a general rule, we wouldn’t recommend putting a white wine in the fridge for an extended period as wine does not like vibration (and your fridge compressor vibrates constantly)… only pop it in a day or two before you intend on opening it. After opening, a young Riesling might taste good for 3-4 days if kept in the fridge whereas a ten buck Chardonnay might only last a day before it starts to fatten and oxidise.

Milage may vary. Younger white wines generally last longer than old white wines after being opened. High acid/low ph white wines will generally last longer than higher ph/lower acid wines. If you whack the white wine in the fridge between sittings, it will taste better for longer.

While some white wines will improve with breathing as phenolics oxidise, many will improve as they warm too, but will then slowly deteriorate. As the white wine warms, its aromatics become more pronounced, which in turn will make it tastier... unless the white wine was crap to begin with - then you've Buckley's chance of it improving no matter what you do!

Older whites generally should be drunk in one sitting.

At least forty twelve ;) It really depends how you’d like to categorise them... ie, dry, off dry, sweet, sparkling or fortified...

Going deeper, you have aromatic vs non-aromatic varieties... ie, Riesling has a lot of fragrance, which in turn informs its flavour profile. All it needs it a quick and coldish ferment in stainless steel and hey presto, awesomeness! Chardonnay is naturally fairly neutral aromatically, but responds beautifully to winemaking artefacts, like whole bunch fermentation, oak ageing and lees stirring in barrel.

By variety... there’s a truckload of those... hundreds... even within a single variety there can be many distinctive styles. For example, unoaked Chardonnay vs oaked Chardonnay - some would argue that unoaked Chardonnay is the work of Beelzebub, aromatically bland and flavour-limp, the kind of wine you might gift to someone who reckons Spam deserves a Michelin star. As with most things wine, there are exceptions. Some of the best Chardonnay wines in the world are unoaked; many Chablis and most Champagne are unoaked. Quality, cool climate, oaked Chardy which has been lees stirred can be strikingly aromatic, rich and full-bodied, with deep flavours of stone fruit, vanilla, butter and minerality.