The Second Glass

You’re freezing indoors, listening to the pouring rain and gearing up to drink a big fat red when, all of a sudden, it’s sunny and 90 degrees out. Since drinking most reds on a hot summer day will suck your soul out through your tongue and gums, you have to get your alcohol fix somewhere else; it’s time to turn to Sauvignon Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc is synonymous with summer. It’s a crisp and refreshing wine that could just as easily be served with lobster at a luxurious dinner as it would pool-side, stoop-side, or court-side in between plays of a basketball game. Unlike most wines, Sauvignon Blancs are meant to be drank young, while their fruit is extremely vibrant and fresh, like biting into the pulp of a zesty grapefruit or a perfectly ripened peach.

A Sauvignon Blanc’s straightforward fruit can be appreciated by everyone, but what really makes this wine exhilarating is its ability to showcase different terrior and style. Perhaps this is why Sauvignon Blanc is planted from California, to Serbia, to New Zealand, and everywhere in between. With as many locations as Sauvignon Blanc is planted, there are three areas, in particular, where the grape has flourished.
Loire Valley, France

The village of Sancerre in the Loire Valley, France.

When traditionalists think Sauvignon Blanc, they think France. Sauvignon Blanc is thought to have originated in Bordeaux where it has been partnered with (and occasionally without) Sémillon to make dry and sweet wines for hundreds of years. However, like Ortiz playing for the Sox after coming from the Twins, Sauvignon Blanc really found its home in the Loire Valley; in particular, the Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé appellations. These two appellations are separated by the Loire River and for the most part, have the same hilly, limestone and flint soil, landscape.

Even though grapes have been planted here since Roman times, Sancerre didn’t really concentrate on Sauvignon Blanc until the mid 20th century. After starting out as an extremely light-bodied wine made almost specifically for the absolute ease of drinking, producers started making more serious wines from the Sauvignon Blanc grape. These wines showcase fruit, terroir, and a unique set of flavor profiles and acidity to pair with food. As a result, the wine from Sancerre really caught on in the 70s and 80s, and became a popular restaurant wine. Sancerre expanded to keep up with demand and passed the popularity right on down the line to Pouilly (who plant Sauvignon Blanc almost exclusively), taking the Sauvignon Blanc grape from the 13th most planted white grape in France during the 60s to the 3rd most planted today.

The uniqueness of this area’s Sauvignon Blanc comes from its terroir (the French term for characteristics that land and climate impart to its wine) and the importance most of the region’s winemakers place on it. The limestone and gravel soil with traces of flint makes for a more perfumed wine that might be slightly smoky and almost acrid on the nose, as well as having a noticeable minerality on the palate. The hallmark aroma of Sauvignon Blanc (especially the wines of these appellations) is what winos call, “Cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush.” This is because great representations of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, and Sauvignon Blancs in general, might have a strong aroma of gooseberries, other green fruit, some herbaceousness, and a little something that might be slightly reminiscent of a litter-box. Ok, so that last trait probably didn’t sell you on Sauvignon Blanc, but it isn’t at all offensive. It is actually looked at favorably by most wine enthusiasts and you can rest assured the wine will not taste like Tidy Cats brand cat litter.

Buying Tips:

* Pretty much anyone who says they can distinguish a Sancerre from a Pouilly-Fumé is full of crap. But, if you are faced with the option of buying a cheap bottle of one or the other, go with the Pouilly. After Sancerre spiked in popularity, the appellation expanded from about 1,700 acres to around 6,400 to keep up with demand. This means that the cheaper wines of Sancerre are probably sourcing their grapes further and further away from the actual town of Sancerre and the soil (and attention to detail) can be more variable.
* Sauvignon Blanc is meant to be a crisp and refreshing wine. What makes a wine “crisp” is a high, yet balanced amount of acidity. The factor that keeps acidity present in grapes is predominantly weather and more specifically temperature. Unfortunately weather is hugely variable year to year in the Loire, so in an “off year,” you might want to spend a little extra cash to get a wine from a producer you trust.
* Don’t buy old Loire Sauvignon Blancs from bargain bins. Sauvignon Blanc is meant to be enjoyed young and fresh, like produce from a farmer’s market. Although Pouilly-Fumé can produce some age-worthy wines, they’re probably not something you would find 2 for $10 in the front of the store.

Marlborough, New Zealand

Photo by D. Nelson

Cloudy Bay; the vineyard that put New Zealand on the map.

Marlborough is a young wine producing region on the northeastern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. Here Sauvignon Blanc is number one. Vines were first planted here in 1973 by Montana, New Zealand’s dominant wine producer (responsible for about half of their wine). After their vines matured, Montana proved that Marlborough was in fact, an awesome region for Sauvignon Blanc. Montana’s success inspired many other growers and producers to follow suit. Marlborough then caught the international eye and was recognized as a great Sauvignon Blanc producer with Cloudy Bay’s first release in 1985. Since then the relatively small wine producing country of New Zealand has hit the world market fast and hard.

Marlborough’s Sauvignon Blancs are very unique especially because of their high acidity and piercing aroma. The wines here are very citrusy and have a refreshing green character that smells like what would happen if Gallagher swapped out his watermelons with grapefruit, and then covered the remains with fresh-cut grass. This in large part has to do with Marlborough’s varying soil types, climate, and creative winemakers. Simon Waghorn, winemaker of Whitehaven Wines explains:

The biggest contributor to our success with Sauvignon Blanc would have to be the cool climate – moderate daytime temperatures, clear sunny skies, and crisp cool nights. We get the light quality for photosynthesis, but not the excessive heat to bake away the flavor. Our grapes take a while to ripen, and it is early to mid fall before we harvest – so the long flavor accumulation also has a bit to do with the intensity.”

In addition to the climate, Kim Crawford, Proprietor of Kim Crawford Wines attributes his Sauvignon’s character to the landscape, soil, and planting techniques:

“from a geographical sense, the two main valleys run west to east, and we plant north to south. So, therefore we plant across old river beds, riverbanks etc and have variable soil types within the rows. Giving a wide range of flavours.”

Though New Zealand wine makers can take advantage of the land and its climate, winemaking in New Zealand is not always a walk in the park. Not even 150 years ago, most of this land was covered by rainforest. Some of the soil here is very fertile, which believe it or not, isn’t the best for growing wine grapes. This goes double for a vine as vigorous as Sauvignon Blanc. Vigour refers to the vegetative growth on the vines. In New Zealand, when the vines aren’t meticulously pruned, the vines’ vegetation will grow out of control, making the resulting wines too thin, acidic, and actually making them taste more vegetative than fruity. However, great producers that take the time with their vines have been able to churn out consistently great Sauvignon Blancs, characteristic of New Zealand year after year.

Buying Tips:

* Buy (as long as it’s young)…period.

California, USA

In the early days of California wine making, Sauvignon Blanc did not do particularly well. Americans did not like the pungent aromas and bean and asparagus-like herbaceousness the wine had. This all changed in 1966 when marketing mastermind, Robert Mondavi made a predominantly Sauvignon Blanc wine with a little Sémillon for body. He also covered up the “green” qualities that are characteristic of the grape with oak, and called it Fumé Blanc, alluding to Pouilly-Fumé. The resulting wine was more like a California Chardonnay than a Sauvignon Blanc, but, that was what Americans wanted at the time. This caught on and raised the popularity of Sauvignon Blanc in California tremendously.

Sauvignon Blanc continued to be made in this style until the early 80s when phylloxera aphids ate away at California’s vines, which then needed to be replanted. This enabled growers to use more modern planting methods and make the grapes less vegetal. According to Honig winemaker, Kristin Belair “the silver lining of the phylloxera ‘disaster’ was replanting and with new trellising systems (support structures used to train vines) that allowed more light on the fruit,” and that now “California tends to lean towards a fruit forward style, [showing] citrus, melon and tropical [aromas and flavors]. The herbal notes can be there but are certainly not the bell pepper and green bean flavours that you saw through the early 1980s…. [Now] if oak is used, it tends to be as an enhancement, rather than something to cover up herbal or vegetative flavours.”

Like the wines of Loire and New Zealand, California Sauvignon Blancs are unique because, to a large extent, they are manipulated by their climate. Napa Valley is about 3 1/2 degrees latitudenally closer to the equator than Marlborough and about 9 degrees closer than the Loire. This means Napa’s Sauvignon Blanc grapes will contain less acid and more sugar. After fermentation the resulting wine will have less acid and more alcohol, thus, less crisp with heavier body. This is magnified still, the further down the California coast Sauvignon Blanc is planted. California winemakers can still make a more acidic, lighter bodied wine by picking grapes early, giving California a wide range in its already very diverse spectrum of Sauvignons.

Buying Tips: Know your personal preference.

* Wines labeled ‘Fumé Blanc’ will most likely be bigger bodied Sauvignon Blancs with a bit of Sémillon and hints of oak, while wines labeled ‘Sauvignon Blanc’ will probably be more fruit-forward, easy drinking, and a cleaner expression of the grape.
* Sauvignon Blanc is planted all over California and the U.S. for that matter. Wines that are further north on the California coast will tend to have more acidity while further down, the wines might be less “crisp” and more full-bodied.