Notes from our 'Sauvignon Blanc Masterclass'
The Grape:
An ideal way to begin any wine appreciation is to taste a Sauvignon Blanc as it is one of the most distinctive varieties in terms of aroma and flavour.
Sauvignon Blanc's homeland is the Loire region of France - most famously from Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé
As the wines from France are usually labelled according to area rather than grape, it is essential to know which varieties are in the wine!
The Loire Valley is the coolest area where the grape is grown, and you will see how climate affects the aroma, taste and body of a wine as we progress through your tastings.
Sauvignon's distinctive aroma has been described as “cat's pee on a gooseberry bush” - slightly unkind but strangely accurate! Coopers Creek went so far as to name their Sauvignon Blanc wine after this phenomenon!
Common (and somewhat kinder) aromatic descriptors associated with cooler climate Sauvignon include gooseberry, freshly cut grass, green fruit, flint and herbaceousness.
'Flinty' is often used to describe French Sauvignon, with Pouilly Fumé in particular renowned for it's 'gun-smoke' character.
**Don't get mixed up with Pouilly Fumé and Pouilly-Fuissé though - Pouilly-Fuissé is from the Mâconnais subregion of Burgundy, and more importantly, made from Chardonnay!**
The wine's grassy, vegetal, green capsicum characters are down to Pyrazines which are flavour compounds shared by certain foods.
It is not uncommon to detect aromas of blackcurrant leaves similar to the smell of a red wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon. In 1997 DNA profiling proved that Sauvignon Blanc and a red grape Cabernet Franc were the parents of Bordeaux's famous Cabernet Sauvignon.
Unsurprisingly, Sauvignon Blanc is widely grown in Bordeaux where the climate produces grapes with slightly less acidity and reduced aromatics. Here it is blended with the 'fatter' Semillon grape to give the wine more body.
The vine itself is extemely vigorous and needs careful pruning to tame the growth of vegetation which can produce excessive herbaceousness in the wine.
Pruning is also important for controlling the 'yield' of fruits from the vine – Loire producers are restricted by law to the amount of fruit each vine can produce. This gives the Loire grapes a more concentrated expression of the distinctive Sauvignon taste.
In the 'New World' - ie., outside of Europe - New Zealand's Marlborough region has given birth to a modern style of Sauvignon made famous by a wine called Cloudy Bay.
The style has more pungent fruitiness, often a little bit of sweetness, combined with more apparent alcohol on the palate. The warmer climate produces more passionfruit, guava and grapefruit characters.
Australia has generally been a little too warm for the grape but Adelaide hills has proved to be an increasingly reliable exception to the rule with producers like Shaw and Smith providing excellent examples.
California's famous winemaker Robert Mondavi renamed the grape Fumé Blanc in the 1960s and revamped the grape's image in America. However, subsequent copy-cats of his oaked Sauvignon showed the downside of making warm climate Sauvignon: picking grapes later in warmer conditions gave less refreshing acidity, less aromatics and more sugar. As far away from the distinctive characters of Sauvignon as you can get!
The Winesmakers
Grapes and regions are important but it is still the winemaker who makes all the difference:
Domaine Yves Martin is a small family run estate in the famed “Chavignol” site of Sancerre. They use sustainable farming methods and wild yeast fermentation to produce a wine with a 'sense of place'. It is particularly good with goats cheeses especially 'Crottin de Chavignol' which is from the very same village. Not bad for a village of only 200 inhabitants!
Domaine Vacheron 'Les Romains' is made by a family run estate only using products which are authorised for organic and biodynamic agriculture. Made in a 'classic style' and fermented in old oak foudres rather than barriques, this is as intense and powerful as Sancerre gets.
Michel Bailly is acknowledged as one of the best producers in the Loire. The father and son team organically farm their vineyards producing a Pouilly Fumé that has the characteristic smoky, mineral flavours of the area.
Shaw and Smith received a 90 point score from Singapore-based Local Nose and Robert Parker writer Lisa Perotti Brown. She said that the 2010 Sauvignon Blanc had “intense grapefruit peel, lemon juice, orange blossom and lime leaf aromas” and that it is “up there with Australia's best examples of this style”.
Michael Seresin is a certified organic producer from New Zealand who oversees the hand-picking of grapes from three different vineyard in order to produce a wine with a complex set of varietal characteristics. Interestingly, he is also a director of photography, with a portfolio of films that include Harry Potter - The Prisoner of Azkaban!
Te Ahu is a Moari term that makes reference to “a new generation, pathway or beginning”. The winemakers, Terravin, wanted to show the “different path” Marlborough Sauvignon can take with low yields from selected plots and with patient winemaking. As they say, “this is about definition of place rather than variety”.
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Contributed by Chris Penwarden, TLN Singapore Editor
