Riesling should not be confused with the lesser white grapes Laski Rizling, also known as Olasz Rizling, Welschriesling, Gray Riesling or Riesling Italico. Is very hardy and can survive at very low temperatures. It is also resistant to disease; Has distinctive pale, speckled grapes that grow in small clusters; Is generally late budding and late ripening; Has average to high *yields; Is resistant to *Botrytis cinerea, which makes botrytized Riesling a greater rarity than some other botrytized wines; Produces top-class dry, medium-dry and sweet wines. The Riesling is the classic German grape. It can crop heavily and it ripens late, but it can make the ultimate honeyed, delicate, flower-scented nectar.

The only grape allowed for red Beaujolais. In general, Gamay wine is rather rough-edged and quite high in raspy acidity, but in Beaujolais, so long as the yield is not too high, it can achieve a wonderful, juicy-fruit gluggability, almost unmatched in the world of wine. Elsewhere in France, it is successful in the Ardèche and the Loire and less so in the Mâconnais. It is grown elsewhere around the world, but so far without any distinction. Most resulting wine styles are for early drinking or short keeping at best.

At its best Gamay produces wine that is incomparably light, fruity and gulpable, pale red, or, exceptionally, a dark wine ageing well for six or seven years.

The grape of white burgundy (Chablis, Montrachet, Meursault, Pouily-Fuisse) and of course Champagne. The white Chardonnay is probably the most sought-after grape in the world, though it is nowhere near to being the most widely planted. It gives firm, full, strong wine with scent and character, on chalky soils becoming almost luscious without being sweet. Ages well, with or without oak flavouring by fermentation and/or maturing in barrel. Easy to grow and to like. Now planted almost universally

It’s strange, but there’s hardly a wine grape in the world which makes wine that actually tastes of the grape itself. Yet there’s one variety that is so joyously, exultantly grapy that it more than makes up for all the others ­ the Muscat, generally thought to be the original wine vine. In fact there seem to be about 200 different branches of the Muscat family, but the one that always makes the most exciting wine is called Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (Muscat with the small berries).

These berries can be crunchily green, golden yellow, pink or even brown, and the wines they make can be either really pale and dry, fresh, rich and golden, or as dark and sweet as treacle.