I know several people who say they don’t like sauvignon blanc because they’ve tasted a style that put them off. That’s understandable: Wine is too expensive for a casual drinker to do a lot of experimenting on sauvignon blanc when you don’t know what you’re getting, and there’s a perfectly respectable and dependable chardonnay available. But that diversity and variety of flavors and styles are what make wine in general — and sauvignon blanc in particular — so exciting. Here are some pointers for your future explorations.
Sauvignon blanc is “wild” and “green”.
“Sauvignon” is said to derive from the French “sauvage,” meaning “wild.” A spontaneous cross of sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc is believed to have created cabernet sauvignon, so this white grape variety is a parent of the world’s most famous red wine grape.
Sauvignon blanc is a vigorous vine capable of producing a bountiful crop virtually anywhere wine grapes grow. Left alone in the vineyard, the grapes can produce wine that can be over-the-top vegetal or even animalistic. When describing wine, “green” is usually negative, indicating underripe flavors. But most words used to describe sauvignon blanc imply some shade of green. In The Wine Bible (3rd Edition, 2023), Karen MacNeil provides a table of 11 types of green, from fruits (figs, honeydew melon) to citrus (lime pith), herbs (sage, thyme, mint), spice (green peppercorns, jalapeño), even to outdoors and the ocean (mowed grass, seaweed).
Those attributes aren’t bad. The key in growing sauvignon blanc is managing it in the vineyard to tame the aggressiveness and emphasize fruit characteristics. Reducing the leaf canopy to allow more sun on the grapes and dropping some clusters to lower crop size are two important techniques used on all varieties that are especially important to help ripen sauvignon blanc.
Soil and climate influence styles.
The ancient marls — earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt — of the middle Loire Valley in France contribute to the character of wines from Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. The more affordable wines of Touraine to the west tend to be fruitier but are still good introductions to this style. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s cool maritime climate magnifies the grape’s aggressively green and animal characteristics. Those bold flavors helped New Zealand sauvignon blanc become a market sensation in the 1990s and early 2000s, but may also have contributed to some people’s perception that all sauvignon blanc tastes that way. The tongue-in-cheek comparison to “cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush” didn’t help either, especially since most people in this country aren’t familiar with gooseberries. (New Zealand winemakers have generally achieved a more restrained expression of the grape in recent vintages.)
Of course, winemakers can choose a style of wine to make. In the Bordeaux appellations of Graves and Pessac-Léognan, high-end, age-worthy sauvignon blanc is typically matured in oak barrels. Traditionally it was blended with semillon, a less assertive white variety that adds body and takes well to oak. Semillon is playing less of a role in recent vintages. In Bordeaux’s Entre-Deux-Mers region, stainless steel is commonly used to preserve the wine’s freshness. These inexpensive bottlings can be delicious everyday table wines.
California has made sauvignon blanc in a variety of styles.
In the 1960s, Robert Mondavi famously coined the name Fumé Blanc for his Loire-inspired rendition fermented in stainless steel. (Blanc fumé is a Loire Valley nickname for the grape.) Most California wineries, however, followed the Bordeaux style, indulging their love of barrels and trying to, as one distributor representative once told me, “conquer the grassy herbals.” This resulted in nondescript wines indistinguishable from undistinguished chardonnay. A few years later, Dry Creek Vineyards, a leading sauvignon blanc champion in Sonoma County, pushed aside that trend by quoting Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” in its promotions. It was a clear message that winemakers should embrace (and manage) the grape’s character rather than subdue it. Indeed, sauvignon blanc has increased in popularity, expanding from a low of about 11,380 acres planted in California in 1997 (according to UC Davis) to 17,261 acres in 2023 (according to the 2023 California Grape Acreage Report).
Some California specialists in sauvignon blanc include Dry Creek Vineyards, Quivira and Merry Edwards in Sonoma County. Frog’s Leap and St. Supéry lead the pack in Napa. And if you ever have a chance to splurge on a bottle or even a taste of Robert Mondavi Winery’s “I Block” Fumé Blanc from the To Kalon Vineyard, don’t hesitate. It is one of the most amazing wines made in the United States and should be on every wine lover’s bucket list.
Altitude brings attitude.
Sauvignon blanc thrives in mountainous regions such as northeastern Italy and Austria’s Steiermark (Styria), along that country’s border with Slovenia. The altitude seems to give the wine an extra charge of energy. Some of these wines can be on the assertive side, but many show a precise balance of fruit and acidity that echo on the palate like a shout of joy from the mountainside.
Great sauvignon blanc comes from near and far.
As a champion of wines from around the country, I would be remiss not to mention some producers in other regions. I’ve enjoyed outstanding sauvignon blanc from Oregon (Appassionata), Texas (Spicewood), Virginia (Linden, Glen Manor, Delaplane Cellars, Stinson, Veritas) and Maryland (The Vineyards at Dodon). These wineries are crafting distinctive sauvignon blanc.
So take this as a green light to go wild, and explore the amazing diversity sauvignon blanc has to offer.
