Best White Wines To Serve At A Dinner Party

When deciding on which type of wine to serve at a dinner party, most hosts choose red wine over white wine, thinking that this is the better choice. While red wines may be the more popular choice, this does not mean that whites are of lesser quality. In fact, there are several dry white wines out there that are just as good, if not better, than red wines for serving at a dinner party. Here are some of the tips you can follow when looking for the best white wines to serve at your next dinner party.

Criteria for Choosing Your White Wine

One of the first things that you should ask about when choosing white wines is where they have been fermented. Typically, wines are fermented or aged either in traditional oak barrels or the less expensive oak staves. To the uninformed, there may not seem to be much difference between these two options but when it comes to flavor, there is actually a huge disparity between white wines that have been aged in oak barrels and those that have been aged in staves. Without question, the ones that were fermented in oak barrels have a much richer flavor and are of better quality. Because of the higher cost of using oak barrels, these wines may be slightly more expensive but the added cost is certainly worth the difference in taste and quality.

Unfortunately, not all wine manufacturers indicate the place of fermentation in the label, in which case many people resort to guesswork as to which ones might be the better wine. But instead of taking this risk, it is much better to ask around first before making a purchase. Usually, even the clerk at regular wine shops will be able to help you determine which varieties are better than the others.

If you are shopping for white wines specifically for serving at a dinner party, it might also be a good idea to familiarize yourself first with what your guests prefer. There’s no point in buying a case of a certain type of wine that none of your guests will be able to appreciate. Generally, younger people tend to gravitate towards new world wines, which are sweeter and have fruitier flavors. Older folks on the other hand typically like old world wines, which are more subdued and are not as sweet and fruity. But if you are hosting a rather large party with a good mix of different types of people, it would make perfect sense to buy an equal number of old world and new world white wines.