Results tagged “Sauvignon Blanc”

Sauvignon Blanc isn't a variety that immediately springs to mind when I think of the Canberra District, but this is a quirky rendition at a reasonable price. 

Some bottles I look at and presume, for one reason or another, I won't be writing up. This - being a blend of which I'm not terribly fond - was one of them. But drinking it now, nicely chilled, I'm finding it really well made, so thought I'd jot down a quick note.

I've had some interesting conversations over the last couple of weeks on the merits (or otherwise) of writing up straightforward, commercial wines. There's no arguing the relevance; this wine is available pretty much everywhere, and as a consumer I'm just as interested as the next snob in reading a bit about what I might buy. But as a writer, my issue is that, more often than not, they provoke no reaction. They are exactly what I think they will be, and where's the fun in that?

Curious wine, this one. Without quite knowing why, I was anticipating a boring, commercial style and, insofar as this wine avoids insulting levels of residual sugar, I was pleasantly surprised.  But I'm still scratching my head in terms of what this wine is. 

I gather the previous vintage was well rewarded at wine shows. Presuming the 09 is made in a similar style, I can see why. This is a generously flavoured wine, quite different in style from, say, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, despite a similarly vivid outlook. 

Yesterday, I met up with an old friend in Viña del Mar, and much to my surprise he delivered a stunningly beautiful wedding present: Chilean wine, palm syrup, peaches, and chocolates. Wonderful stuff - and now my task is to drink at least four bottles of the wine over the next 48 hours because if I don't I'll have so much luggage that I can't board the flight to Calama on Wednesday. Yikes! Thankfully, this is going to be a very easy task.

There appears to be a very, very light carbonation to the wine; at the bottom of the glass are tiny bubbles (if you're a Don Ho fan, feel free to sing along about now) and there's a very light spritziness on the tongue. The color is bright and clean; it's only on the nose where it gets interesting. It's a very savory wine, reminding me more of good Burgundy than white Bordeaux somehow, with a very slight sulfury note mixed in with yeasty bread and an appealing lemony note. My favorite thing about this wine is the slippery, rich, full palate that is wonderfully textural and mouthfilling; there's a slight spiciness to the finish with sprightly acidity as well.  It may have smelled like Burgundy, but it's definitely more like a white Graves, wet stones and pastry cooked with lemon rind and cream, but also that spiciness that really makes it special.

All in all this is good stuff (and to me personally, it's also a reminder to stop drinking single varietal wines all of the time; blends like this seem much more complex and interesting, don't they?). Thanks, Felipe, for the bottle - I'm looking forward to the next ones!

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc can, on the surface, seem quite uniform in style, notwithstanding some notable exceptions. That it's one of the most recognisable wines has much to do, I'm sure, with its success. It also causes me to wonder: if I were going to make such a wine, what would I be aiming for? Would I seek to out-Marlborough other wines, with even more up-front regional character? Or would I seek to tone down the style, maximising inoffensiveness and, presumably, appeal?

James Halliday thinks this is the best sauvignon blanc in Australia.

Sadly, it smells mostly of kraft paper, banana peels, and girls' Olsen Twins perfume - there's a strange, plastic-y fake fruit smell here that is somewhat unsettling. Acidity is good, but the mouthfeel is somewhat strange - it reminds me of cheap ice cream with an overdose of carrageenan -  and the finish is reminiscent of cheap imitation almond extract and the taste left in your mouth after playing a wax paper comb for too long at summer camp.

Honestly, I don't get this wine. Sauvignon blanc isn't riesling: if needs something other than itself in the bottle unless it's grown in Sancerre or Marlborough, I reckon. What could have been an elegant wine is undone by the lack of oak or other winemaker input that would have attenuated the inherently boring characteristics of the grape; I don't think that this terroir is enough in and of itself to create a wine of interest. Yes, there are absolutely brilliant wines from the Adelaide Hills, but in my experience they tend to be chardonnays which benefit from some creative input on the part of the winemaker. The fruit is good; I'd just like to see something more complex than what's in this bottle.

From my perspective, this is a curio: an inexpensive white wine made for the German market. I was sent samples by the apparently indefatigable Leigh Gilligan, whose various ventures enjoy strong distribution, and seem to resonate strongly, in Germany. The interest for me, apart from the wine itself, is the marketing approach, which draws explicitly on Australia's reputation for "sunshine in a bottle" wine styles. While this approach is now hotly contested in the local industry, there's no doubt Australian wine is known in export markets largely for this type of wine, so if nothing else I'm eager to taste wines with a claim to representing the style and, hence, a certain face of the industry.

After all this chardonnay, it's kind of awesome to be hit smack in the face with a huge faceful of cat piss. Honest. There's also a strange emptiness hinting at celery seed and fresh unsalted butter somehow; I know that's a bit precious but it's frankly quite difficult to describe what this thing smells like. It almost reminds me of unmilled wheat; there's a potentiality in the smell that suggests raw materials, not finished product. Turns out the cat piss was only temporary anyhow; on second thought, it's much more herbal than that. Hrm.

Surprisingly broad on entry, this isn't a wispy-thin, steely, acidic white. Oh, no, not by a long shot. Acids aboud, yeah, but there's a surprisingly rich, nearly honeyed aspect to the mid-palate that slyly, teasingly turns like a cat that doesn't want its belly scratched to reveal other aspects of mineral bananas, carbon honey, I again am at a total loss for words here. It's like a Karo spill in the dried-herbs cabinet: it's like licking white sage honey off of stony pebbles.

Seriously, I don't know how to describe this wine at all, and that's a good thing. Every connection it suggests; every experience it conjures is playful and unexpected. It's all a bit overwhelming and unnerving as I was just looking for a simple sauvignon blanc, but this wine is the opposite of that.

Although I was fortunate enough to visit Neudorf last January, I completely neglected to write anything about my visit there. However, I did find a bottle of their wine (the only one in the entire shop!) upon returning to San Diego, and here it is:

The nose is intensely tropically fruity and reminds me of pineapple more than anything else; it's exuberant and nine-tenths of the way to a Mai Tai. However, the simplicity of the nose is deceiving: once you get some of this in your mouth, it goes in unexpected directions. First of all, the texture of this wine is unusual for sauvignon blanc (at least to me, New World kid that I am). It's vaguely reminiscent of, I don't know, Mexican fresas con crema, which is basically a light whipped cream dessert; this wine seems to me to have similar light-yet-creamy characteristics, a lovely balance between fruit and cream. Going back to the nose for a minute, the wine seems to have more in common with gewürztraminer than sauv blanc; it seems to be slighlty floral, tending towards roses, with some black pepper sneaking in at the side. Very, very curious.

The mid-palate to finish of the wine return to relative normalcy; it does in fact wind up at the somewhat stereotypical gooseberry note you'd expect from a NZ sauv blanc. However, what's exceptional is that it doesn't dissolve into a shrill hoot of acidity; instead, it somehow maintains its composure and sneaks out on a soft ebb of sweet cream.

This is really, really good stuff.

As for visiting the winery itself, well, I don't regret it, but I also was nonplussed by the experience. Obviously, Neudorf do great business; their parking lot was entirely full with Land Rovers and other Toorak tractor-esque metal, leaving little choice for many but to park on the grass. Once inside, the entire tasting room experience was one of those uncomfortable commerce-oriented experiences designed mostly to sell you product; although tasting room staff were friendly and knowledgeable, they turned decidedly cool when I declined to purchase anything opting instead to put $5 in the charity box they kept on hand for "gold coin donations" to their favorite charity for anyone who dared not buy wine on the premises. If there's anything I truly despise at a tasting room, it's being hounded to buy wine, no matter how good it is. Yes, Neudorf, your wine is amazing, but do you have to make us feel so little for not buying any on-site? It's not always easy for international visitors to get wine home; some of us have to wait until we get home before hunting down some locally.

That being said, I'm glad I did, and I'll buy it again - I'm just bummed at the lingering bad taste your tasting room experience left behind.

Oh, and would you please export your Pinot? It was amazing. kthxbye!

It feels more than a little self-indulgent to be sipping Sauvignon Blanc on an evening of such devastation a few hundred kilometres South. Here's hoping life is restored to relative normality as quickly as possible, so we can all enjoy a glass of wine without threat of natural disaster or worse.

There seems to be two types of Sauvignon Blanc made by Central Otago producers: those using local grapes and those made from Marlborough fruit. This wine is the only regional blend I've tasted. I must admit, I wasn't especially taken with this at cellar door, but the other half requested we purchase a bottle, and I'm nothing if not obliging when it comes to purchasing wine. Much to my wallet's chagrin.

I've occasionally written up Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc wines on this site and have expressed some reservations about the style in light of its more famous cousin to the South. I've been waiting for a wine to change my mind and I may have found it in this Te Mata number.

Prickly, rich aromas of passionfruit with a bit of herbal astrigency. On its own terms, this is a very sniffable aroma, quite different from the Marlborough wines but no lesser for it. It's a bright wine, but less aggressive in comparison and consequently more approachable.

On entry, good impact both via structure and flavour intensity. There's no shortage of fruit here, passionfruit jumping onto the tongue along with a nice line of fine acid and some other complexing flavours. Quite impressive. It reminds me a bit of Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc in its clean, bright and fruit-driven flavour profile. Not as rich as some Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blancs I've had, and I like this leaner profile, as it successfully avoids the laziness observed in some other wines. Not especially long.

Nice wine and, for me, a viable alternative to Marlborough.

Te Mata Estate
Price: $NZ20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2008

Interesting wine, this one. To pontificate for a moment, the potential for obviousness with this style tends to produce a couple of extremes: wines that capitalise on the most outre aspects of the typical flavour profile, and wines that play down the astrigency and aromatic dimension to the point where they become almost apologetic for what they are. Of course, in most cases one seeks a happy medium, and I was happy to discover this wine falls at neither end of the spectrum.

A soft aroma profile that nonetheless shows a range of typical notes: grass, passionfruit and other slightly tropical delights. As a style, it definitely tends towards subtlety, perhaps even dilution, but compensation comes in the form of considerable complexity and delicacy. It's a nice wine to smell. On the palate, if its tendency towards dilution is confirmed, so too is its complexity, impressive in the context of this style. Entry is driven more by structure than flavour, but this trend is reversed as the wine gains pace. More aromatic and slightly astringent tropical fruits cascade over the middle palate, generating some satisfaction. The after palate and finish gently stroke the palate, fairly subued.

I wonder if the lack of flavour intensity is a result of the vintage? In any case, a very drinkable wine that shows good complexity and well judged balance.

Stoneleigh
Price: $NZ24
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2008

It's fashionable to bash Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, but I confess I'm a fan. At their best, they represent the sort of flamboyant vulgarity that is its own reward. I think their style misleads some into thinking all examples are equivalent, but I'd suggest their outre character makes things like balance and scale more important than many other, perhaps more forgiving, wine styles. When Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc goes off the rails, it really shows.

All of which is a less than promising introduction to this wine, made by a Hawkes Bay winery from Marlborough fruit. From what I understand, 2008 wasn't a spectacular year, many wines showing the challenges of the vintage. This is the first I've tried, and it's not a disaster by any means, but it is firmly tilted towards the sort of herbal grassiness I associate more with Margaret River than Marlborough, and which I have trouble with in excessive quantities.

On the nose, typically forthright yet showing a strident grassiness that sits atop the aroma profile, dominating other notes of crisp passionfruit and gooseberry. This somehow makes it more astringent yet duller at the same time; not a great outcome. It says something for the resilience of this style that, despite the odd balance, this wine is still quite clearly a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. The palate shows a softer wine that, whist remaining shackled to grassy notes, also remains quite drinkable through clever winemaking. By tempering any excess of acidity, the winemakers have softened this wine's inherently astringent flavour profile to the point where it goes down quite easily. It continues to lack substance in terms of fruit notes, but it's crisp and clean and refreshing. One could do a lot worse.

As an aside, I must come up with some form of shorthand for "Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc," as it's quite cumbersome to type over and over again. Any suggestions?

Vidal Estate
Price: $NZ20
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2008

It's Sunday afternoon and the storms keep threatening to hit, but never quite do. Still, the air is thick with humidity and the smell of imminent rain, and it's moments like this where I tend to reach for something in white. If it's pungently aromatic, then so much the better.

An altogether excellent friend recently sent me a few wines to try, in the spirit of education and vinous exploration. I hadn't intended to write any of them up, but this one surprised me and suggested a few notes were in order.

Quite a luscious nose showing tropical fruit and some honeyed apricot, offset by a solid streak of high toned flint. An interesting balance between overripe fruit notes and the sort of minerality one usually associates with ultra-dry wines in the Australian context. This theme continues through the palate. On entry, lots of ripe flavour and a slippery mouthfeel, though with enough acid to ensure a sufficiently fresh impression. Though certainly influenced by some residual sugar, the fruit character reminds me of preserved lemon: sharp citrus character by way of pungently savoury syrup. This sits on top of a shard of flint that adds detail and shape to the wine's line. Good density through the after palate, and a good lingering finish.

Interesting style that worked well for us as an aperitif. It would also suit canapes well, and I imagine would cut through a degree of oiliness thanks to the minerality. Wines like this help to remind me that, although it's great to revisit favourite styles, there's a tremendous diversity of wine just waiting to be tasted.

Bouchié-Chatellier
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: September 2008

Anecdotally, Sauvignon Blanc, alone and in blends, seems to be the quaffer of choice for casual work lunches and similar occasions. It's not hard to see why; flavours are for the most part easily discerned and unchallenging. There are some quite lovely versions of the "classic dry white" blend. The Grosset springs immediately to mind, and the Margaret River style seems especially prized by the lunchtime crowd. Most examples, though, seem to express more modest vinous aspirations. This one, from McLaren Vale based winery Tatachilla, is made from fruit sourced across South Australia. 

For all the explosiveness and fashion of New World Sauvignon Blanc, it's tempting to expect all wines made from this grape to be high octane styles. It's one small step to view impact as the key indicator of quality for these wines. If you're of this mindset, here's a wine that may change your perspective.

Fine, balanced aromas of crushed sea shells, honey and ripe, pale tropical fruit. Despite the light, high toned aroma profile, there's a sense of depth and complexity that draws one back. The entry continues this theme, with more crushed shell creating a dry, slightly austere impression. Fruit fills out a little on the mid-palate, but does not overtake the flinty dryness, so the wine remains a chiselled experience. Intensity isn't especially remarkable, but it's the excellent balance, as well as a dry, slightly chalky mouthfeel, that generate satisfaction here. A nice lift through the after palate, before the wine finishes with adequate length.

I can imagine this wine disappearing in a line up of more extroverted styles, but I like it for its poise and sophistication. I'm about to tuck into a Chicko roll and I'll bet it's a good combo.

Roger et Dider Raimbault
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: May 2008