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Sauvignon Blanc – the grape variety that made New Zealand wine famous.
Every year, we see sales of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs increasing, and it’s not surprising. Wines such as John Forrest’s Sauvignon Blanc and Cloudy Bay’s Sauvignon have a huge, loyal following, thanks to their purity, generosity of aroma, and clean, fresh, ripe flavours.
Why is Sauvignon Blanc so popular?
Sauvignon Blanc, like all grape varieties, can take on a number of guises, depending on how and where it is grown. However, it is one of the most easily recognised wine styles. It can range from soft, delicate and aromatic (apple blossom) in parts of the Loire, through to tropical fruit (South Africa, some parts of Australia), to pungent, pea pod / asparagus / green pepper / gooseberry and even ‘sweaty’ or cat's pee (New Zealand). This pungent character is attributed to a naturally occurring group of chemicals called methoxypyrazines. These chemicals are also found in Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, which give them their ‘green’ flavour characteristics.
Where is it grown?
Sauvignon Blanc is such a reliable and popular variety, that it has been transported from its home in France across to most wine growing regions of the world.
In France, it’s most at home in the Loire, where it produces some of the loveliest, gently aromatic styles.
The chalk and Kimmeridgean marl of Sancerre and Pouilly produce rich, complex wines, and the gravelly soils found near the Loire River and its tributaries impart spicy, floral flavours. Pouilly-Fumé originates from the town of Pouilly-sur-Loire. The soil here is very flinty with deposits of limestone which imparts a smoky, gunflint flavour to the wine, hence Fumé, the French word for "smoke".
In Bordeaux, it’s an important component of white Graves, and is widely grown in the Entre-deux-Mers. It also plays an important role in Sauternes, although the more noble-rot-prone Semillon is the dominant grape variety in the blend. Sauvignon Blanc is a great blending partner with Semillon, where it adds fresh aromas and lift to the waxy, lemon-zest flavours of the Semillon.
New Zealand is producing some truly superb Sauvignon Blancs – the variety is at home in the country’s relatively young gravel soils around Marlborough, and the long, cool growing season means that the grapes ripen slowly and evenly – perfect for good flavour and aroma development. Canopy management (keeping the vine’s foliage in balance with the fruit) is important – grapes need to be ripe otherwise the grapes are overly high in methoxypyrazines, which can lead to the resulting wine becoming excessively herbaceous. Many winemakers choose to pick their fruit at different stages of ripeness to provide the final blend with a full gamut of flavours – a delicious way to get the most out of the grape variety.
Oak-aged Sauvignon Blancs in the USA are often called Fumé Blanc (smoked), which is an apt term as the wines take on a smokey, toasty character from the barrels.
Sauvignon Blanc is also at home in the cooler regions of South Africa, Chile and Australia (Adelaide Hills, Margaret River) where it can produce delicate, scented and well-structured wines.
Food matches
Perfect with asparagus, white fleshed fish, sushi, and Japanese food.
We are incredibly lucky here in Southwold, as we are close to a great asparagus grower in Wrentham. Every spring we pop across to the farm, buy some freshly-picked asparagus (it needs to be eaten as fresh as possible to retain the natural sweetness) and open up a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to go alongside it – fabulous.
More Sauvignon Blancs...
