The grape can create bold, ripe, rich, intense flavours of apple, fig, melon, pear, peach, pineapple, lemon and grapefruit, spice, honey, butter, butterscotch and hazelnut - and one good glass of Chardonnay will contain many of these. In addition, this grape variety can be characterised by aromas of toasty, smoky, or vanilla-like woodsy characters, because of it's affinity to oak.

It's traditional home is in Burgundy's Côte d'Or, where it produces a variety of flavours and styles according to where it's grown and how it's made, flavours range from minerally, unoaked Chablis to the grand and complex, nutty dry whites of Meursault, Chassagne and Puligny Montrachet in the Côte de Beaune and the fleshpots of Pouilly Fuissé further south.

But it doesn't end here, it's grown all over the world thanks to its accommodating nature, in the hands of sensitive winemakers it does increasingly well in Chile, Argentina and South Africa. Its wines range in style from the crisp, lighter versions from cooler climates to the rich, tropical fuller wines from the hotter parts of the Australia.

As mentioned above, it has a great affinity with oak so is often fermented or aged in the barrel, which just adds a toasty vanilla complexity to Chardonnay's rich, buttery, peach fruit.

(Useless Fact: It's not the most widely planted variety in the world, this honour goes to Spain's Airén - who you ask!).

Considered more of a workhorse variety (or a blending grape) in the New World, Chenin tends towards more tropical flavours. it is South Africa's most widely planted grape variety (known as Steen), also widely planted in California, Australia, Argentina and New Zealand. It occasionally produces quality dry whites when barrel-fermented

It performs best in cooler climates, so it can retain the little acidity that it does have. Alsace probably produces its finest examples, although it is also grown in Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe as well as in small quantities in Chile, South Africa, Oregon, California, Australia and New Zealand.

However, the old heavy French traditional muscats are becomming 'old-hat'. Australia's, Stella Bella and Two Hands, are producing some wonderful delicate dessert wines, light, fragrant and low in alcohol, ideal for summer drinking. Andrew Quady from California, has devoted his career to producing Orange and Black Muscat wines that just exude delicious delecate flavours, light, but ideal for winter puddings.
There are, of course, fresh, dry examples from Alsace, northern Italy, Germany, eastern Europe.

The late-ripening Riesling's heartland is the steep Mosel and Rheingau valleys of Germany, where it produces wines rich in crisp, lime and appley flavours and honeyed richness. Its classification from dry to sweet gives it an entirely different cultural slant from its French counterparts, with the perfumed, sweet styles ranging from auslese to trockenbeerenauslese in great demand.It is also very much 'á la mode' in the New World. It's not the sticky, sugary stuff that gave German wine a bad name. Made in varying sweetnesses (dry through to very sweet), its high acidity levels keep everything elegant and in balance.

At the same time, it is a component in the sweet, rich and luscious whites of Sauternes and Barsac. It can do well in cooler areas within Europe, including parts of Austria and Hungary.

New Zealand has been particularly successful with Sauvignon Blanc, here it produces a stunning array of pungently, assertive characters, from the green grass, green bean, tinned pea and asparagus flavours to the more tropical, ripe spectrum of grapefruit, guava, passion fruit and mango.

The Sauvignon cause has also been taken up to good and affordable effect by Chile and South Africa, whose cooler spots are proving ideal for this wonderfully zingy, fresh grape variety.

Australia helped to make this grape's name as a single varietal for dry whites with its distinctive wines in particular those from the Hunter Valley, which develop a buttered toast character with age, while the richer, fuller-bodied, lemony Bares Valley Semillons can also be excellent. Now winemakers in Bordeaux are trying their hand too, with and without the help of Sauvignon Blanc in the blend.

It's deep colour combined with strong tannins and an affinity with oak allow the wines to improve in bottle over years if not decades. It is equally capable of producing affordable, everyday reds in regions like the South of France's Pays d'Oc, and countries like Bulgaria and Chile as it is of producing wines with real finesse and class, the best of which come from Bordeaux and parts of Tuscany and Australia. South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina are now laying claim to some very good blends and varietals made from this noble grape.

In Australia's Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. Known in Spain as Garnacha Tinta, where it's widely planted, particularly in Rioja and Priorat, it fleshes out the Tempranillo. It's grown in California and in Italy too.

Some Malbec is also grown in Chile, Australia and California.

In California, it has almost cult status, making concentrated Bordeaux-style wines.

Its thick-skinned grapes need plenty of sunshine to ripen fully and, unless handled with care, it can make red wines that are inpenetrably tannic when young. The best are long-lived reds alive with scents of truffle, malt and violets and with flavours of rich, tarry, black cherry fruit.
Small quantities are grown in California and Australia, where it has yet to show the pedigree of its Italian counterpart.

Sangiovese is widespread in Argentina thanks to the influx of Italian immigrants and has become fashionable in California and, to a more limited extent, in Australia.