Read This Before You Order Your Next ‘Crisp’ White Wine

• By WineBottleMag
• July 28, 2025
• Crisp Order Read White Wine
• With 0 comments

Along with bright, tangy and tart, “crisp” is often used to describe a certain style of white wine. It’s also commonly tossed at sommeliers and other wine professionals, by customers in search of bottle recommendations.

“A ‘crisp’ wine is brisk, with levity, mouthwatering acidity, verve, tension and energy,” says Sarah Looper, wine educator, owner of Loopersomm and sommelier at il Buco in New York City. Put simply, these wines are generally on the lighter side, with notes of zesty citrus, tart green apple or fresh green herbs. Some even have an enticing hint of minerality or saltiness. 

If this type of wine is your jam, you’ll be happy to discover its made all over the globe, from the Loire Valley in France, and Marlborough in New Zealand, to Italy’s Alto Adige region and Wachau in Austria. 

They’re often made from grapes grown in cooler climates or regions with wide diurnal swings, vinified in stainless steel and sipped while they’re young—all of which helps retain the wines’ fresh character. In geometric terms, if a rich, oaky white is round and supple, a crisp one is hard and angular. These offerings drink easily and deliver palate-prepping acidity, beckoning you back for sip after glorious sip—like the wine version of a squirt of lemon added to a dish right before serving. 

And as Looper points out, the very term is onomatopoeic. “You can picture what the word sounds like and your mouth immediately waters.” 

So, when wine professionals are tasked with suggesting a crisp white wine, where do their minds go? Below, six of them share their recommendations.

Gavi di Gavi 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking Italy’s crisp whites are limited to Pinot Grigio. Daniel Vannatter, the sommelier at Sartiano’s at The Mercer Hotel in New York, swears by Gavi, calling it “a citrus bomb from Piemonte.” 

“It has light white flowers, clean citrus and gravelly aromas, a mineral backbone and all the brightness translates into the glass,” Vannatter says. “It’s great for starting the meal or a new course with a refreshed palate.”

Gavi is one of the few whites produced in a region more famous for big reds like Barolo. It’s a winner with grilled fish, seafood risotto or goat cheese.

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Albariño

In the Galicia region of coastal northwest Spain, Rias Baixas has emerged as the home for zesty beloved whites made from indigenous Albariño, which often picks up a salty tang from vineyards’ proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Gillian Sciaretta, corporate wine director for Gary’s Wine & Marketplace in New Jersey and Napa Valley, loves this balanced, focused style. 

“It has crisp acidity that accentuates salty-mineral elements along with citrus and stone fruit flavors like lime, grapefruit, apricot or peach,” she says. “For people wanting an alternative to Sancerre, definitely seek out an Albariño.”

Pair it with clams or oysters like the Galicians do, or with takeout sushi, Indian or Thai.

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Vinho Verde

Cross the border from Spain into Portugal, and Albariño is called Alvarinho—one of the varieties used for the fun, often fizzy Vinho Verde. “The grape has a lot of ocean influence where you get a lot of mineral reality from the sea winds that beat against the vineyards all day,” says Amy Racine, the wine director of JF Restaurants in New York. She likes to suggest this varietal when guests ask for a crisp white. 

“This is a lean white wine that can have the yeast and bready characteristics of a Chablis, but underripe, high-tone fruit like you would find in a Sancerre,” Racine says. “It can also be extremely automatically complex with those tropical fruit tones and floral character. Easily confused with a Riesling on the nose, it’s very dry and mineral on the palate.”

She adores it with vegetable-forward dishes, grilled shrimp with lemon vinaigrette and sauteed mushrooms with wild herbs.

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Jacquère from Savoie

While Savoie flies under the radar compared to the country’s more well-known regions like Bordeaux and the Loire Valley, this area tucked in the French Alps plants varieties like Chasselas and Altesse for equally appealing vibrant whites. 

Lauren McPhate, partner at Tribeca Wine Merchants in New York and a stage three Master of Wine candidate, recommends bottles made with Jacquère or, a grape with notes of green apple, herbs and citrus. “The wines harken to where they come from, with cool, crispy freshness and a distinct Alpine sensibility,” she says. “Like taking a snowy walk through the forest and drinking from a glacier. 

It is a food friendly wine and serves perfectly with a range of dishes from delicate white fish to juicy roasted chicken or soft and hard cheeses.

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Verdicchio di Matelica 

Wine with grapes grown near the sea picks up alluring mineral and saline notes—like Verdicchio di Matelica, from Italy’s Marche region on the northeast coast. These wines show the hallmark characteristics of the Verdicchio grape: high acidity, citrus and a pleasing bitter almond note. 

Looper likes this varietal because it has “gentle power and lift, intensity and poise, and an overall verticality,” she says. “Minerals, notes of anise and the vigor of a horse that’s about to bust out of the gates and you’re on that horse but trying to hold it back and keep your balance but you know once that horse is out of the gate it’s gonna be a wound and wild ride.” 

The minerality and whiff of anise work with fresh seafood, crustacean or bivalve, she says, or even tinned fish. 

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Assyrtiko 

With its stark white, blue-domed stack architecture and dramatic caldera, the Greek island of Santorini is breathtakingly gorgeous. It’s also home to Assyrtiko, a fascinating, full-bodied, seaspray-tinged white wine made from grapes grown in volcanic ash soil on vines trained to form baskets for wind protection. 

Robin Wright, wine director at Café Carmellini at New York’s The Fifth Avenue Hotel, serves it with tuna crudo with uni and other raw seafood, or Italian chicory insalata with hazelnut vinaigrette and comte cheese. “This wine is crisp, bright and mineral-driven, while carrying a touch of texture which adds to the complexity,” she says.

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