Wine with Andy Cronshaw

AT this time of year white wine plays the dominant role at my table, offering the best matches for the type of food we’re eating: salads, fish, and chicken.

I also find white wines generally match better with cheeses, particularly the ones we get regularly such as Lancashire and goats cheeses where Bordeaux whites have stood out recently in taste tests.

Here’s some of the whites I’ve been guzzling recently and the foods that paired perfectly with them.

MORRISONS THE BEST VERDICCHIO DEI CASTELLI DI JESI CLASSICO, 2021 (Top, £7, Morrisons)

When you consider Morrisons still has its 25 per cent off on three bottles or more until June 26 then this is even more of a bargain.

Verdicchio is one of Italy’s great grapes making for exceptional food wines.

This carries some almond creaminess and a sharp waxy lemon character. It’s superb with asparagus and in particular in a carbonara-style pasta dish.

JOURNEY’S END TASTE THE DIFFERENCE CHARDONNAY 2021 (£10, Sainsbury’s) New World Chardonnay from South Africa but by no means overly oaked or too tropical. This is fleshy and there’s vanilla on the nose but it’s well balanced and taut with fresh acidity - a brilliant match for roast chicken salads.

CHâTEAU DE LA GRAVE ‘GRAINS FINS’, CôTES DE BOURG 2020 (Bottom, £9.95, Wine Society) There’s nothing like Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese, the only genuine, traditional farmhouse example still made. This is a perfect match.

An unusual blend of Semillon and Colombard, it’s also a fine example of the variety to be found in Bordeaux’s whites. Rich and rounded with excellent acidity.

GINI SOAVE CLASSICO 2020 (£15.88 Justerini & Brooks) The Gini family are based in Monteforte d’Alpone in Veneto and are living proof that Soave can produce superb, complex fine wines.

A leading light in the region, they practise organic viticulture and lower sulphite usage. This lemon-scented beauty is fabulous with spaghetti vongole.

CHâTEAU LAFONT-MENAUT BLANC 2018, PESSACLéOGNAN (£21, Tanners) Wine Merchants Tanners have some outstanding examples of white Bordeaux.

This oak-aged Sauvignon is completely different to the grape’s more familiar guises in the Loire Valley and New Zealand.

Herbal on the nose, the oak gives the Sauvignon an aniseed bent. A very good match for a strong British goats cheese but also fine wine for your best shellfish.