Great Australian white wines

Innocent Bystander Willing Participant Chardonnay, Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia 2012 (£11.99, Tesco) There are still a lot of wine drinkers who are, as one merchant put it to me, “badly scarred” by their encounters with the big, badass Australian chardonnays of yore. Never mind that, of all the many improvements in Australian wine in the past decade or two, it’s the quality and diversity of the whites that is perhaps the most eye-catching; a lot of people still flinch at the memory of all that oaky clumsiness. It hasn’t helped that prices for Australian wines, thanks largely to exchange rates, are much higher than they used to be, with quality generally starting around a tenner. For the curious or convert, however, this Victorian is a beautifully judged and balanced example of the coolly exhilarating modern style.

Rolf Binder Highness Riesling, Eden Valley, Australia 2013 (£10.99, Waitrose) It’s always been harder to stereotype Australia’s other most famous white styles as crude and bludgeoning, although, despite their naturally low-alcohol, the sheer strength of personality of both riesling from the Clare and Eden Valleys in South Australia and semillon from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales has made them, in a way, just as divisive. I love both, love the way they’re unapologetically themselves and couldn’t come from anywhere else. Rieslings such as Rolf Binder’s have a freshly squeezed lime intensity and verve that makes them natural partners for fish with Asian spice and herbs. Semillons like McGuigan The Shortlist Semillon 2007 (£15, Tesco), with its mix of lime marmalade on toast and herby freshness, are a natural fit for smoked salmon.

Michael Hall Roussanne, Adelaide Hills, Australia 2012 (£24.95, Berry Bros & Rudd) Proud as they are of these modern classic white styles – to which I should add the Bordeaux-style white blends of sauvignon and semillon from Margaret River in Western Australia (such as the blistering freshness of Vasse Felix 2013; £13.99, Waitrose) – Australian winemakers have always prided themselves on their curiosity and willingness to experiment. You can see that in the proliferation of different white grape varieties they’ve mastered. Two recent favourites both come from the green and gentle rolling hills of South Australia’s Adelaide Hills: Fox Gordon’s pristine, fleshy, peachy take on southern Italian fiano (2013, £15.95, Lea & Sandeman) and the orchard fruit and blossom of Michael Hall’s rippling, plump but fresh interpretation of the white Rhône grape, Roussanne.