Whites can prove an autumn warmer (From The Oxford Times)

Whites can prove an autumn warmer

7:30am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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I cannot believe that as I write I am listening to the dulcet tones of the dodgy 30-year old boiler kicking into action and pulling out months-old receipts from my fleece pockets. Autumn has arrived.

You may remember me talking about my white-wine-only drinking friend who has stubbornly resisted my attempts to convert her to the delights of red. It can be a challenge for me, especially when I’m looking for a bottle for us to share after a day’s walking that’s left me chilly and damp. I am after, what I call, a warming white.

To qualify the white needs to have richness of fruit, more than a touch of nuttiness and a ‘sunny’ (yellow or golden) appearance. They also need to have the ability to drink well with the shellfish that are once again back in season and even with some roast pork with English apple sauce.

My first must-have white for autumn is the quite beautiful Te Mata Zara Viognier 2008 from Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand (£15.50 www.thewinesociety.com). I am typically not a huge Viognier fan because it can be a bit fat and flabby. However, the Zara Viognier has lovely honeysuckle aromas, some lovely warm spice and fresh apple flavours too. A wine that delivers generously on the roasted nut requirement — and much besides — is the Chilean Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay (£10.10 www.slurp.co.uk). The nuttiness, lovely smoky aromas and fresh toast characteristics all come from ageing ‘sur-lie’ in oak barrels for ten months whilst the Chardonnay fruit is most definitely of the lusciously, fresh tropical.

I know they say that Cleopatra bathed in milk and whilst I’ve always admired the indulgence, it’s quite hard to imagine the appeal of filling up one’s own bathtub with a few cartons straight from the fridge. However, I have been known to take a soak in a tub full of bubbles with a glass in hand after a particularly wild and wet day.

On that occasion it was with one of my all-time favourite warming whites, the Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon 2007 (£10.25 www.caviste.co.uk). In some ways it’s a funny choice because it doesn’t have an immediate richness, but over time it does take on a beautiful toastiness that integrates perfectly with the citrus edge. It drinks exceedingly well with shellfish too.

Sweet white wines definitely get more ‘glass time’ in the McCleery household once the leaves start to turn though it’s hard to say why. I have a long, unwavering love for the Fasoli Gino San Zeno Recioto di Soave 2006 (£25.50 www.vintageroots.co.uk) which has the smell and taste of roasted apricots, orange honey and cinnamon which seems to pull your senses from summer to winter.

The days may be drawing in but you needn’t depend solely on the thermals and slippers for a touch of comfort.