Salta's high altitude & dry, extremely sunny days brings out the most aromatic qualities of the Torrontes grape. This offering reminds us of bright 'new world' Viognier with its lush floral notes, but also something altogether more traditionally Sauvignon Blanc-esq in its crisp crunchy nature.

Named after winemaker Tim Kirk’s ancestral farm in County Clare, Ireland (it means ‘meadow of the church’), this estate has become one of the real icons of Australian wine. Inspired by the great wines of Condrieu, this has real complexity along with a mineral elegance that is often missing in 'New World' Viognier.

A great example of the potential of the Clare Valley, capable of producing crisp, fresh, citrusy Riesling even in the Ozzie heat. Good long citrusy finish – 'new world' with out being 'new world'.

Frankly, there aren't many Semillon / Sauv Blanc blends (at this price or from this part of the world) that get us very excited. But here's one that does. An exciting blend of ripe exotic passion & mango fruits, with a lovely citrus lime balancing note. It ticks all the right boxes for 'new world' power whilst retaining that all important freshness.

Fred Loimer makes great quality Gruner Veltliner in the Kamptal region of Austria. GV can vary in style a great deal but this is at the crisp and clean end of the spectrum, being vinified completely in stainless steel to retain freshness. A great alternative to Sauvignon blanc.

This wine has lovely aromas of tropical fruits and melon with the Semillon adding a lively, lemony feel to the palate. Great value for money and a good all-round party wine.

A good value Sauvignon from a modern, quality-conscious producer. A little softer than the New Zealand style but full of tropical and herbaceous flavours. Very easy drinking.

Bacchus is fast becoming our national grape & rather than chasing that international Sauvignon Blanc 'wan-a-be' style it's beginning to find its own identity & not many do it better than the Lindos at Camel Valley - Bodmin. English wines are demanding to be taken very seriously these days, no longer assigned to village fete fare these can seriously compete on the international stage against the rest. This wine brings memories of lazy summer strolls down country lanes, fresh summer breezes filled with cut grass, hedgerow fauna - almost the slightest hint of fairy dust & daisy pollen. Just beautiful & perfect for a hot summers day.

A lighter more delicate wine than the Bacchus with characteristics of the fresh Cornish coast quietly murmuring in the background. Naturally THE perfect accompaniment to shellfish (particularly of Cornish origin).

A very honest & traditional example of English Bacchus. Less exotic & fruity than it's Cornish counterpart - more hedgerow & cut grass. Delightful green, crunchy characteristics - a lovely summery, refreshing style.

Pinot Blanc often struggles in certain parts of the continent to obtain anything other than a slight spiciness. However, back in Blighty & in certain years it can become something quite wondrously expressive. It will never be a new world-esq blockbuster but here you'll find aromatic blossomy notes, yes that spicy characteristic comes out along with rose red apple touches - but altogether a different experience.

So this is apparently Englands best selling wine. What a jolly little introduction it is. Shows the best of all its componants, fruity, citric qualities, fresh elderflower & herbal notes. Light, ever so slightly off dry, balanced & refreshing.

A little bit different from the usual English hue of grassy notes. Think of more spicy characteristics, crunchy & fresh with vanilla overtones. Perhaps a bit more like a Chenin Blanc from the Loire in its bite & richness.

Its interesting to see how the Bacchus grape changes in character as we move around our fair isle. Surrey Bacchus has a country air feel to it, lighter than its Kent incarnation & far less tropical than down in balmy Cornwall. The nose is reminiscent of walking through a Surrey field on a fresh summer morning, the palate light, crisp, dainty almost. Bacchus again shows its versatility & quality.

This is Denbies top wine if you will, more Cote d'Or-king I guess... Sorry. Rich, full of aromatic depths not reached by any other English wine we've tried, complex spicy body, bold & up right structure more reminiscent of something Burgundian. Drinking well now but should be looking good with further ageing.

Alain Cailbourdin’s reputation has grown steadily over the years and he is now one of the leading Pouilly Fume producers, making wines of serious quality. The ‘Les Cornets’ cuvee comes from vineyards on mineral-rich Kimmeridgean clay soils and this quality really comes through in the wine. A very elegant style, perfectly balanced with a lovely long finish. A classic wine that is perfect with simple grilled fish.

Irouleguy is a tiny appellation in the Basque country of the South West of France where the vineyards are cut into the steep Pyrenean mountain-sides. As you would expect, the wine is mountain fresh with crisp acidity and aromas of white flowers and flavours reminiscent of crystallised lemons along with a surprisingly rich finish. Something off the beaten track but well worth a try; great with ripe cheeses.

Still relatively un-commercially known as a region of France. The area is by the sea just South East of Montpellier. There are large mussel & oyster farms to be found here & this wine is a perfect match for those items. The word Picpoul is actually from an old French dialect meaning light/rich & that describes the wine perfectly. As crisp, fresh & zingy as a Muscadet (France’s other sea food wine) yet with a good exotic ripeness to it.

A big hitter for all you fans of super rich, ripe, powerful, yet classy white Burgundy. 2006 was a tricky vintage to handle but the good examples are showing well after a few years in the bottle. Great with the finest birds & sweetbreads. Delicious.

Oft touted as poor mans Sancerre, but in reality very rarely hitting the same giddy heights of quality as that famous appellation. Here's one that actually is not too far off a bulls-eye. Lovely fresh grassy green notes & those gooseberry hints one expects, all parcelled up in a lovely crispness. Ticks all the right boxes.

Le Clos sits, south facing, receiving the maximum sun exposure. This is why it produces wines of beautiful richness & power that have the potential for ageing for over 20 years. The wine develops honied complexity over stoned fruits & a rich, juicy depth all backed up by a chalky crunch that assures you of its origins.

I've been a long time fan of St Aubin & this Domaine inparticular. St Aubin is tucked around the hill behind the famous vineyards of Montrachet. The wines are always a good stylistic mid point between the richness of a Meursault, the elegance of a Puligny Montrachet & the crisp crunch of a Chassagne. But at a fraction of the price. A perfect wine for fans of good white Burgundy.

Domaine Latour-Giraud has been an estate close to our hearts for a long time now. Some of Neil's earliest tasting memories were in their cellars at 8 o'clock in the morning with a raging hangover - a true pro! The wines - text book examples if you will. Gloriously nutty & rich with that fabulous Meursault weighty elegance. Underpinned by that wonderful Burgundy citrus freshness. Oh - happy days.

The white wines from the Cotes de Nuits certainly don't get as much recognition as their red counter parts, but that doesn't mean we should dismiss them outright. The generous, ripe 2009 vintage shines through here, as does the Nudant purity of fruit style. A lovely silky weight, even at this price point, with some herbaceous overtones balanced by a precise citrus back bone giving us a really classy feeling wine.

This wine comes from parcel of vines planted in the 1960’s and is a very classic expression of Puligny. The wine sees only a small proportion of oak but there is plenty of richness there from the quality of the fruit and some extended lees contact. The acidity is what really sets this apart from the Chardonnays we have become accustomed to, giving the wine a freshness and purity which cries out for rich, creamy sauces. Very classy.

In my humble opinion one of the finest Puligny Montrachet producers, if not finest white wine producers in the world... Enough said.

(it's hard to write the sound of rubbing of hands with glee). What a wine, Chenin Blanc at it's absolute best. Rich & honied with fresh minerality that makes you weak at the knees, crunchy apple fruit & texture so wholesome & nutritious - this has to constitute one of your five-a-day. Complex yet pure, intriguing yet so simple in its honesty.

Where to begin… JP makes a style of wine unfamiliar to most. He advocates nature & allowing nature to do whatever nature wants. After pressing the grapes he barrels the juice & just leaves them till they ‘tell’ him they are ready. They are then bottled without fining or filtration – very natural, very bare & not like commercial wine most are used to. The chenin blanc is crunchy & appley with floral, herbaceous, cider notes. There is an elemant of yeastiness to this wine & rich oxidised flavours, but that is all part of the making. A wine that tastes different on every taste – a real explorers wine. Organic

Le Roc des Anges is an organic estate situated close to the border with Spain in the Roussillon region where the vines grow on very poor soil made of rotten schist (good for vines!). Everything done here, in the vineyard and inside the winery, is very traditional and as non-interventionist as possible. These values translate into the purity found in the wines themselves; this has great precision and depth. Would go well with roast chicken or even pork belly.

One of the most exciting white wines we've recently tried. An elegant and refined mix of crisp, exotic citrus fruit, overtones of orchardy elements and a delicate star anis touch. This wine is a real enthusiasts wine & we make no excuse for it. Every mouthful gives you another element to explore, gaining richness as it’s aerated. A great match for a simple roast chicken. Organic.

This, Patrick's third vintage sees a return to more classical style. This wine shows off the terroir or character of this area fantastically. Precision & accuracy are of course the wine makers style but under that are ripe & bright fruit notes. Hints of smokey minerality & steeliness play around the edges. This is already spot on for drinking.

Petit Chablis has earnt itself a bit of a bad reputation of late. Often lazy, overpriced wines traded off the Chablis name & certainly not deserving the prices asked for them. So how refreshing to try Patrick's offering. Even as his entry level wine this little fellow just sings class, purity & most of all true Chablis-esq quality. Crunchy yet ripe citrus fruits, minerality that really makes its mark & most especially a wonderful easy drinkability. Lovely.

'Clos des Allees' Vieilles Vignes. Pierre is regarded by many as the leading light of Muscadet & produces wines of exceptional quality & character. This is from old vines from a specific vineyard & is quintessential Muscadet. Rich, intense, minerally & crunchy, the almost salty nature of its minerality drives through the pert acidity. Powerful stuff thus perfect with shellfish.

Un Saumon dans la Loire is Frantz Saumon's negociant (grapes purchased from selected sites not grown by the wine maker) range. The Sauvignon de Touraine is a perfect example of SB from this area of the Loire. Crisp & fresh with a lovely mineral crunch & light, leafy, citrus overtones. All at a very very reasonable price. Frantz is reknowned for his dedication to quality & respect for the environment & natural style wine making. It really shows even at this level.

In our humble opinion the Manseng grapes are some of the most exciting varieties not to have achieved global acclaim - & this wine shows why. The rich & tangy Gros Manseng is full, slightly oily but with lovely balance with its acidity, the Sauvignon Blanc's lighter exotic characteristics compliment this perfectly. Reminiscent in style of some very classy Rieslings but at a very good price.

Based in the village of Bechtheim in the Rheinhessen region, this is definitely an estate to watch. The quality of grapes here is very impressive due to meticulous vineyard practices and great attention to detail. This Estate Riesling is a modern, dry and minerally style with great purity and finesse.

Robert Heuser is based in the village of Traben Trabach in the Middle Mosel. Here the blue Devonian slate soils give a great example of the Mosel style. The wine is off-dry with lovely grapefruit and sherbert flavours and a nice lingering finish. The perfect aperitif.

Garganega is the quality grape of the Soave region in the Veneto, North-East Italy and this particular example is made in a very fresh, modern way by a New Zealand winemaker, emphasising the fruity side of the grape. Light and unoaked, this none-the-less has plenty of flavour and is great to drink on it’s own as well as matching well with salads and lighter fish dishes.

Friulano is the agreed new name for Tokaji-Pinot Gris in this part of Italy. What to expect? Spicy full exotic aromas & palate balanced with a lovely freshness which never out does the thicker feel one looks for in a good example of this grape - rather compliments it. Good length & that exotic fruit goes the distance. Really good food wine.

A lovely point of difference - old world Sauvignon Blanc that works without being from the Loire. Good fresh cruch with leafy, citrus notes. Never quite as green as a Sancerre but it does have a delicate spicyness that seems to be indicative to this region. Good stuff.

Giovanni Blason’s wines are not showy but are well-balanced and importantly, a real joy to drink. This Pinot Grigio has good depth of flavour and a nice, spicy richness but it does avoid the heaviness which can afflict certain ‘serious’ Pinot Grigio from this region. A great match for seabass drizzled with good fresh olive oil.

The Ca dei Frati estate is owned by the Del Cero family and is considered the best in the Lugana region (the southern shores of Lake Garda). Lugana is also the grape variety here (a superior variety of Trebbiano) and it makes a wine that is fresh and elegant but with good depth of flavour; the quality of fruit really shows here.

This wine is made by the Rallo family who have been making wine around the town of Marsala since 1851. This blend has all the tropical fruit and peachy flavours that we associate with Viognier but the Catarratto provides good acidity and gives the wine a lovely balance and freshness.

Sicily seems to becoming the cool new kid in class - crazily different & unique but still very cool. It's possibly something to do with wines like these, using traditional grape varieties & creating wines of wonderful character that also feel light & fresh on the palate. Maybe it's also because there seems to ge a real glut of wineries like this one who are making very natural wines with minimal human intervention, letting nature take back control of the end result. Beautifully exotic & rich with honied blossom on the nose but with pin point fresh citrus acidity on the palate, soft rose apples & a rich straw like seam flowing through.

The Pieropan family has been producing wine in Soave since 1860 and has been at the forefront of the movement pushing Soave in the direction of quality rather than quantity. This is their ‘basic’ bottling yet it delivers on every front; clean and precise, it oozes elegance and is the perfect partner to simple salads and grilled fish.

This wine comes from the Abruzzo region on the east coast of Italy and is made by young, talented winemaker Marco Flacco. It is light and fresh with delicate aromas of apricots and lemon, while the palate shows good peachy fruit and a lovely zesty finish.

Soft, aromatic, savoury & very moreish. It's what a good Gavi should be all about. This doesn't disappoint.

The name Kevin Judd might not mean anything to you - but his previous incarnation as wine maker at the Cloudy Bay winery may start to ring a few bells. Greywacke, his new project is so far removed from where Cloudy Bay currently sits in the UK market. This wine - fermented with wild yeasts in old oak barrels is something quite different, so full of intense character & richness. A real 'boutique' wine, quantities available are minute, this is a Sauvignon Blanc for savouring, an experience of opulence & quality.

This wine comes from the Ra Nui Winery in the Wairu Valley area of Marlborough. It’s certainly fruit-driven but it also shows some roundness and a sense of balance that sits comfortably at the dinner table.

Excellent quality Sauvignon from Marlborough, this delivers purity and depth of flavour without the excessive and harsh green flavours which blight so many of the more industrial wines from the area. Winemaker Fiona Turner has ensured that the wines remain balanced with a mineral elegance to them.

The Wild Earth winery is fairly new (est.1998) but has quickly garnered awards and accolades aplenty. It is situated in Central Otago with the fruit for this wine coming from just two hectares in the prime Bannockburn Estate Vineyards. Made in a slightly off-dry style, this is ridiculously easy to drink; and with the nervy acidity nicely balanced, it makes a very versatile food wine as well.

The Yealands Estate is situated in the more costal Awatere Valley of Marlborough. The Pacific winds help keep the vineyards a touch cooler & the wines therefore fresher & more minerally. This is a perfect environment for Gewurz to achieve some spicy goodness, with the minerality blending in with a ginger & exotic fruit crunch to give a wine that is almost a Thai curry in itself... Hence its good partnership with Oriental & Eastern food.

The Vinho Verde 'brand' may have seen better days. But trust us here at 2PS to be bucking the trends - this stands alone as a great wine, worthy of a place on our lists. Fresh as a daisy, even some light blossom character plays amongst the cruchy citrus notes. A wonderfully refreshing light sparkle just adds an extra pizzaz, it's fun so grab some fresh seafood & enjoy.

A nice point of difference to the straight Vinho Verde from this estate. Arinto on its own has a clean lemony bite to it - crunchy & fresh throughout. There's almost a hint of the ol' fashioned lemonade about this wine, so great with sea food.

Some of these Portuguese whites are just sensational, so full of character. Perfectly balancing crisp refreshing acidity, lightness of touch and a lovely full rich backbone of fruit & depth. It's these contrasts that make them so exciting & great with food.

This wine comes from a 70 year old vineyard near Melgaco in northern Portugal (Alvarinho is the Portuguese for Albarino).The yields are tiny, the grapes are harvested by hand and there is some extended lees contact. The wine itself is fresh and crisp but with a really lively, mineral character coming through on the finish. A plate of shellfish and you’re in taste heaven.

One of the surprise finds of the year for us. Bucelas is situated just north of Lisbon, not particularly the kind of place you would expect a light, crisp white from. This shows the grassy aromatics of something like a Sauvignon Blanc but also the lemony citrus notes of a classy Chardonnay. Great stuff & a little bit different.

Not a cry of admiration for the Chenin Blanc grape – rather ‘Darling’ is the name of the town near where this Chenin is grown. Only the free run juice is used for this wine which means we see more delicate, fresher flavours. A pale straw colour with quince, guava & citrus notes on the nose. The palate is ripe & mid weight as you would expect from these climes but with a lovely lingering intense minerality in the finish.

It's South African Sauvignon Blanc - but not as we know it. Sure, this has those exotic & ripe notes on the nose that you would expect, but thanks to the cool oceanic winds in the Elim you also get some of the more green herbacious aromas that you tend to find in more traditional examples. Soft and fruity on the palate but with a lovely crisp acidity & absolutely no - that's NO burnt rubber notes.

This label is owned by Charles Back the proprietor/winemaker of the Fairview Winery in Paarl (also Goat farmer and punster!). This is a southern Rhone white blend of Viognier, Rousanne and Grenache Blanc which is very aromatic with lovely flavours of peach and apricot; it also avoids any heaviness which can blight these blends. A well-made wine and a refreshing change from the norm.

*AWAITING DELIVERY OF THE 2010 VINTAGE* Just been given Jancis's thums up as FT wine of the week. Take it away Jancis... "This is an extremely serious dry white made entirely from Albillo vines between 40 and 80 years old. In the Oxford Companion we're a bit sniffy about Albillo but this is a great white wine by any standards. Perhaps its complexity is explained by the fact that it is grown in four organically farmed parcels in the valley of San Martin de Valdeiglesias. The real distinction here is a variety of different soils on a granite base that is all of 750 m above sea level. This is that part of Spain whose weather tends to be extremely hot or cold depending on the time of year, but at least presumably summer nights are sufficiently cool to retain natural acidity for this is not a flabby wine. In fact it reminds me a bit of the better whites of the Agly Valley in Roussillon for its combination of weight, complexity and finesse and of a good white Châteauneuf in terms of build. The nose is exotically full, certainly not crisp but not fat. It gives every suggestion of having the potential to develop even more interesting flavours over the next three years or so and I would imagine it would be very rewarding with food - hearty roast chicken perhaps? There's a certain nuttiness on the finish as well as just a hint of the sort of bitter herb that is appetising rather than a fault. This exciting wine is 14% alcohol. But perhaps the excitement is also down to the young winemaker, Fernando 'Fer' Garcia, who is a big fan of some of the best biodynamic wine of the Loire and Burgundy and is a good friend of the likes of Dani Jiménez-Landi. They both belong to a group of young Spanish terroir fanatics who style themselves Chicos del Terruar, according to UK importers Indigo Wine. Garcia gives the hand-picked grapes a cold maceration and natural settling before fermenting them in large, 500-litre open-topped oak barrels with ambient yeasts. The wine is left on the lees for seven months and the finished wine is neither filtered nor clarified and is very low in sulphur." Why thank you Jancis - as ever, beautifully put.

This winery is located in the Ribeiro zone on the eastern edge of Galicia and on schistous and granite soils. The grapes are hand-picked and the free-run juice is fermented in stainless steel. The wine is wonderfully fresh and aromatic with flavours of stone fruits and lime combined with crisp acidity and a lovely minerality. This really is the perfect seafood wine. Organic.

This vineyard, high up (700m above sea level) in the Rueda region of Spain has existed for over 100 years. The Verdejo variety produces the best white wines here, with the warm days and cool nights making for an even ripening season and aromatic juice. The crisp acidity keeps things nice and fresh with the fragrant floral aromas skipping about it with joyful abandonment.

Macabeu, Parellada, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Muller Thurgau, Riesling, Albarinho & Moscatell all go into making this exciting wine from high in the Catalonian hills. Tomas Cusine manages to extract every nuance of character from each variety, all tied together with fresh altitude acidity & ripe, rich tangy fruit. Lovely contrasts & a really different taste experience, well worth a try.

Naturally this is going to be an exotic, ripe & full version of the Malvasia grape, but its the balance with a well handled fresh, citrusy acidity that impresses most. If you like your Viognier this will be right up your street - but worry not there is little of that Californian 'heat' on display here.

An homage to the great (yet under rated) whites from Chateauneuf du Pape. Exotic & rich on the nose, yet fresh on the palate. There is no escaping that this is from California – the heat is there, but the elegance & refinement shows. Herbacious back bone, almost savoury to finish with good minerality. Organic.

This is the famous Burgundy producer Joseph Drouhin’s outpost in Oregon, which has built quite a reputation since it’s first vintage back in 1988. As you might expect this has a real Old World feel to it showing great balance and bags of class.

This Estate was started in 1971 by Bill and Susan Sokol Blosser in the Dundee Hills area of the Willamette Valley. The vineyards are farmed organically and the winemaking is as natural as possible. The Pinot Gris is a fairly rich wine but there is great acidity and a mineral backbone which gives it structure and precision. The palate has flavours of apple and pear as well as a lovely creaminess on the finish. This matches well with chicken and smoked fish dishes.