White Wine Grapes: 20 Varieties to Know, Grouped by Style

White Wine Grapes in Four Styles

White wine grapes fall into four practical groups. Crisp and light: Pinot Grigio, Albariño, Assyrtiko, Verdejo, Vermentino, Trebbiano. Aromatic: Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Muscat, Torrontés, Grüner Veltliner. Full-bodied and textured: Chardonnay, Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, Godello, Garganega. Off-dry or sweet-capable: Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sémillon.

What Are 10 Common White Wine Grape Names?

The ten white wine grape names to learn first are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chenin Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Viognier, Albariño, Grüner Veltliner, and Muscat. Together they cover every white style, from crisp and neutral to rich and oaked to intensely floral.

1. Chardonnay: Burgundy, France. Apple and citrus unoaked; butter and toast oaked.
2. Sauvignon Blanc: Loire Valley and Marlborough, New Zealand. Grapefruit and cut grass.
3. Riesling: Mosel, Germany. Lime and peach, at every sweetness level.
4. Pinot Grigio / Pinot Gris: Veneto, Italy, and Alsace, France. Pear and lemon.
5. Chenin Blanc: Loire Valley and South Africa. Quince and chamomile, dry to sweet.
6. Gewürztraminer: Alsace, France. Lychee and rose petal.
7. Viognier: Condrieu, Rhône Valley. Apricot and honeysuckle.
8. Albariño: Rías Baixas, Spain. Lime with a salty finish.
9. Grüner Veltliner: Wachau, Austria. Green apple and white pepper.
10. Muscat: Asti, Italy, and southern France. Fresh grapes and orange blossom.

Are White Grapes the Same as White Wine Grapes?

Not quite. Wine people call any pale-skinned grape white, whether its skin is green, yellow, or grayish-pink. But supermarket green grapes are table grapes, bred for eating fresh. White wine grapes are smaller, sweeter, more acidic varieties bred to be pressed and fermented.

Table grapes are large, crunchy, thin-skinned, and usually seedless. Wine grapes are small, with thick aromatic skins and seeds. They carry more sugar at harvest, typically 22 to 26 Brix against 15 to 18 for a table grape, plus enough acidity to keep the wine fresh.

According to the OIV's Statistical Brief on 2024, the world's vineyards cover about 7.1 million hectares and produced 77.7 million tonnes of fresh grapes that year. About 33 million tonnes (47%) were pressed for wine, must, and juice, almost exactly as much as went to the table, with 7% dried. The full comparison is in table grapes vs wine grapes.

How to Read a White Wine Grape

Three measurements explain most of how a white wine tastes, and the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting (taught in Wine & Spirit Education Trust courses) rates all three. The mechanics are in tannins, acidity, and body.

• Acidity: the tartness that makes your mouth water. High-acid whites (Albariño, Riesling) feel zippy; lower-acid whites (oaked Chardonnay, Viognier) feel rounder.
• Body: the wine's weight in the mouth, from watery to creamy. It comes from alcohol, ripeness, oak, and lees (spent yeast) aging.
• Aromatics: how loudly the wine smells. Aromatic grapes (Gewürztraminer, Muscat) smell of flowers and spice; neutral grapes (Pinot Grigio, Trebbiano) are quieter, so winemaking and place show more.

Dry means the sugar has fermented away; off-dry means a touch of sweetness remains. If the bottle is Riesling, which can be bone-dry or sweet, the region and label words give the sweetness level.

According to the OIV's Focus 2017 report, the world has around 10,000 known grapevine varieties. Just 13 of them cover more than a third of the world's vineyard area, and 33 cover half.

Quick check

One question on what you just read

Gewürztraminer smells of lychee and rose. Does that mean it is a sweet wine?

AYes: a sweet smell means sugarBNo: white wine is never sweetCNot always: many are made dry

Tap an answer to see how you did.

Types of White Wine Grapes at a Glance

Grape	Style group	Body	Aromatics	Signature flavors	Classic region
Chardonnay	Full-bodied	Medium to full	Low to medium	Apple, butter, citrus	Burgundy, France
Sauvignon Blanc	Aromatic	Light to medium	High	Grapefruit, cut grass	Loire, France
Riesling	Off-dry capable	Light	High	Lime, peach, petrol	Mosel, Germany
Pinot Grigio / Gris	Crisp	Light to medium	Low to medium	Pear, apple, honey	Veneto, Italy / Alsace, France
Chenin Blanc	Off-dry capable	Light to medium	Medium	Quince, chamomile	Loire, France
Gewürztraminer	Aromatic	Full	Very high	Lychee, rose, ginger	Alsace, France
Viognier	Full-bodied	Full	High	Apricot, honeysuckle	Condrieu, France
Albariño	Crisp	Light to medium	Medium	Lime, peach, saline	Rías Baixas, Spain
Grüner Veltliner	Aromatic	Medium	Medium	Green apple, white pepper	Wachau, Austria
Assyrtiko	Crisp	Medium to full	Medium	Citrus, mineral, salt	Santorini, Greece

Crisp, Light White Grapes

These are high in acid and light to medium in body. Serve them cold and young, with seafood or salads.

Pinot Grigio / Pinot Gris

As Pinot Grigio in northern Italy, it makes light, neutral wine with green apple, pear, and lemon. As Pinot Gris in Alsace, it turns richer, with ripe peach, honey, and a touch of spice. Home regions: Veneto and Trentino (Italy), Alsace (France), Oregon (USA). Pinot Grigio vs Pinot Gris untangles the two names, and Pinot Grigio vs Sauvignon Blanc sets it beside a louder, tarter grape.

Albariño

Albariño gives lime, white peach, and a salty finish on high acidity, and goes with shellfish. Home region: Rías Baixas in rainy Galicia, north-west Spain.

Assyrtiko

Assyrtiko grows in the volcanic soils of Santorini and makes high-acid wines that taste of citrus and salt, with surprising body. It is one of the few crisp whites that can age for a decade. Home region: Santorini and wider Greece. The Assyrtiko wine guide explains the island's basket-trained vines.

Verdejo

Verdejo, from the high plateau of Castile, tastes of green apple, fennel, and citrus pith, with high acidity and a bitter-almond finish. Home region: Rueda, central Spain.

Vermentino

Vermentino tastes of citrus, green apple, and crushed herbs, with a salty edge on the finish. Home regions: Sardinia and Liguria (Italy), Corsica (France), and increasingly southern France.

Trebbiano

Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc in France) is one of the world's most planted white grapes: 111,000 hectares in 2015, according to the OIV. Neutral, high in acid, and light, it makes simple lemony wine; in France it is grown mainly to be distilled into Cognac and Armagnac. Home regions: central Italy and south-west France.

Aromatic White Grapes

These grapes smell of flowers, spice, or tropical fruit before the first sip. Aromatic vs neutral grapes explains why some smell loud and others quiet.

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc combines high acidity with grapefruit, gooseberry, and a green streak of cut grass or bell pepper, or passion fruit, depending on climate. Home regions: the Loire Valley (Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé) for a flinty style, and Marlborough, New Zealand, for a tropical one.

Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer ("spiced Traminer") smells of lychee, rose petal, and ginger. Its body is full and its acidity low, so it often tastes off-dry even when made fully dry. Home region: Alsace, France.

Muscat

Muscat wine smells of fresh table grapes, orange blossom, and honeysuckle. It spans bone-dry whites, lightly fizzy Moscato d'Asti, and fortified dessert wines. Home regions: Italy (Asti), France (the south and Alsace), Greece, and Australia. The Muscat wine guide sorts out its many names.

Torrontés

Torrontés, Argentina's signature white, smells of rose, jasmine, and peach, yet tastes crisp and dry. Home region: Salta and the high-altitude north of Argentina.

Grüner Veltliner

Grüner Veltliner sits between crisp and aromatic, with green apple, citrus, and a savory white-pepper note. It ranges from light and zippy to rich and age-worthy. Home region: Austria, mainly the Wachau, Kremstal, and Kamptal along the Danube.

What Are the Sweetest-Smelling White Wine Grapes?

The sweetest-smelling white wine grapes are Muscat, Gewürztraminer, Torrontés, and Viognier, with Riesling close behind. Muscat smells of fresh grapes and orange blossom, Gewürztraminer of lychee and rose, Torrontés of jasmine and peach, and Viognier of apricot and honeysuckle. All four can be fermented dry, so a sweet smell never guarantees a sweet taste.

The sweet smell comes from terpenes, the aroma compounds that give rose petals, citrus peel, and orange blossom their scent. Sweetness on the tongue comes from residual sugar, the grape sugar left after fermentation stops. Muscat skins hold the most terpenes, so its wines smell of the fruit itself. The fruitiest white wine types sort into three fruit families, and most of them can be bottled fully dry.

If the label reads Moscato d'Asti, the wine is lightly sweet; Argentine Torrontés and Alsace Gewürztraminer are usually dry. If an Alsace label says Vendanges Tardives or Sélection de Grains Nobles, it is sweet. The sweet vs dry wine explainer shows how residual sugar is measured.

Full-Bodied and Textured White Grapes

Oak or long lees contact often shapes these whites, and they suit substantial food.

Chardonnay

According to the OIV's Focus 2017 report, Chardonnay covered 210,000 hectares across 41 countries in 2015. Unoaked, it is lean and citrusy (Chablis). Oaked, it turns buttery and toasty, with vanilla and baked apple (much of California and Burgundy's Côte d'Or). Home regions: Burgundy and Champagne (France) and California (USA). The Chardonnay wine guide covers the oaked-to-unoaked range.

Viognier

Viognier smells of apricot, peach, and honeysuckle and feels rich, oily, and low in acid. Home region: Condrieu in the northern Rhône, France, with strong plantings now in California and Australia.

Marsanne

Marsanne is the weighty backbone of white Rhône blends. It gives almond, pear, and honeysuckle with a full body and waxy texture, and turns honeyed with age. Home region: northern Rhône (Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage), France.

Roussanne

Roussanne is the more aromatic half of the Rhône blend. Its floral, herbal-tea, and pear aromas and slightly higher acidity lift the richness of Marsanne. Home region: northern and southern Rhône, France, plus California and Australia.

Godello

Godello combines ripe orchard fruit and a creamy texture with a stony edge and good acidity, and is often compared to fine white Burgundy. Home region: Valdeorras and Bierzo in north-west Spain.

Garganega

Garganega is the grape behind Soave. It makes medium to full-bodied wines of white peach, almond, and citrus with a bitter-almond finish. Old vines and volcanic soils add depth. Home region: Veneto, Italy.

Off-Dry and Sweet-Capable White Grapes

These grapes make dry, off-dry, and dessert wines, and high acidity keeps the sweet ones fresh.

Riesling

Riesling gives lime, green apple, and peach, plus a petrol note with age. Piercing acidity keeps it fresh with food and long-lived. It spans every sweetness level, from bone-dry Trocken (German for dry) to Trockenbeerenauslese, the highest German sweet classification. Home regions: Germany (Mosel, Rheingau), Alsace, Austria, and Australia's Clare Valley. The Riesling wine guide breaks down the sweetness labels.

Chenin Blanc

Chenin Blanc has naturally high acidity and tastes of quince, chamomile, and wet wool. It can be bone-dry, off-dry, sparkling, or a honeyed dessert wine. Home regions: the Loire Valley (Vouvray, Savennières) in France and South Africa, where it is the most planted grape.

Sémillon

Sémillon is low in acid and waxy, with lemon, fig, and lanolin flavors. Blended with Sauvignon Blanc it makes dry white Bordeaux. Touched by noble rot (a fungus that shrivels grapes and concentrates their sugar), it makes the sweet wines of Sauternes. Home regions: Bordeaux (France) and the Hunter Valley (Australia), where dry Sémillon ages for decades.

How to Build Your White Wine Palate

Pour two contrasting grapes side by side. The how to taste white wine walkthrough adapts the systematic tasting method to whites.

1. Crisp vs rich. Albariño next to oaked Chardonnay: one zings, the other coats.
2. Aromatic vs neutral. Gewürztraminer beside Pinot Grigio: compare how loudly each smells.
3. Dry vs off-dry. Dry Riesling next to off-dry Riesling: the sugar changes, the acidity holds.
4. One grape, two regions. Loire Sauvignon Blanc next to a New Zealand one: flinty against tropical.

Where White Grapes Sit in the Bigger Picture

Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Riesling are among the noble grapes. Spain's Airén covered 218,000 hectares and 22% of Spanish vineyards in 2015, according to the OIV, which puts it alongside Trebbiano among the most planted grapes in the world. For reds, black wine grapes maps the dark-skinned varieties by style. The great sweet whites lead on to fortified specialties like Pedro Ximénez.

Sommy guides each glass through aroma, acidity, body, and sweetness and keeps every grape in a journal. Pour a crisp grape, an aromatic one, and a full-bodied one side by side tonight and name what changes.

Sources

1. Focus OIV 2017: Distribution of the World's Grapevine Varieties — International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), 2017
2. OIV Statistical Brief: Wine, Table Grapes and Dried Grapes in 2024 — International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), 2025
3. WSET Level 2 Award in Wines: Looking Behind the Label — Wine & Spirit Education Trust, 2023