FULL BODIED WINE

FULL BODIED  WINE

FULL BODIED  WINE

FULL BODIED  WINE

Few people sit on the fence when it comes to drinking ripe, full-bodied white wines. Some love them, revelling in their powerful flavours and rich textures, while others find them too much and prefer their whites light and refreshing. Then there is the issue of oak-ageing. Some heavyweight white wines never see the inside of a barrel, but many others spend a long period maturing (and sometimes fermenting, too) in casks, and become even more strongly flavoured as a result of the toasted oaky character leaching into the wine. Opinion will always be divided on the heavily oaked white wines, but winemakers who are careful to balance the fruit, acid and oak elements so that nothing is overwhelming or out of kilter should always win plenty of fans .

FULL BODIED  WINE

  

Ten years ago, robust and hefty whites were all the rage. Wine-drinkers had grown tired of dilute, wimpy whites and the bright, fruit-driven styles arriving from warm vineyards in Australia and California were a welcome shock to the senses. Suddenly here were white wines bursting with generous, plump fruit and dripping with creamy oak. Then the inevitable backlash followed - we had had enough of these extroverts and longed for something more subtle. The good news is that nowadays there are rich whites with (generally speaking) better balance, more elegant flavours and crisper acidity to counteract those 'in-yer-face', bold fruit and oak flavours .




  

FULL BODIED  WINE

The key to enjoying our richest whites is to open them at a suitable moment. Blockbuster Chardonnays and Viogniers are not meant to be quaffed as crisp, light lunchtime aperitifs. But they do stand up to food well, and can make brilliant partners for luxury dishes such as smoked salmon pate, succulent lobster, monkfish or even roast turkey and goose and all the trimmings. By contrast, a thin, weedy white would be totally overpowered by these dishes. So use your rich whites cleverly. Only roll out the big guns when the occasion is right. Hearty food, luxury feasts and cold weather all seem to make us want fleshier wines, much more so than with high summer, al fresco snacks. So if any white wines can be described as winter warmers, these are the ones! 


 

  

APPEARANCE .FULL BODIED  WINE

Bright yellow, hay-coloured; deeper in colour than the lighter whites with golden glints.

FULL BODIED  WINE

TEXTURE .FULL BODIED  WINE

Relatively rich and weighty, more viscous than the lighter whites, less so than the sweet whites.

AROMA FULL BODIED  WINE

Richly perfumed with hints of vanilla, cream, rich fruit (especially pineapples, peaches) perhaps buttered toast and hints of spicy wood from fermenting and/or ageing in oak barrels. Some (e.g. Viognier) have a heavy floral, honeysuckle-and-lilies perfume. 
 

FLAVOR FULL BODIED  WINE

Full and fruity, fairly viscous and weighty in texture for a dry white. Fruit flavours include ripe oranges, peaches, apricots, pineapples, mangos. Buttery, creamy undertones, occasionally a distinct nuttiness. Lightly oaked wines have subtle roundness and layer of vanilla; heavily oaked ones carry more toasty, sawdusty character. Some older wines take on a honeyed, bees-wax note while remaining dry. Lingering, full after-taste.