Pronounced: Sov-ing-yon Blonk
Aside form featuring heavily in the making of the famous sweet wines from Sauternes (along with Semillon), Sauvignon Blanc is the star of edgy, crisp wines from the Loire region of France, and in the New World has found particular global fame from New Zealand.
Styles and Characteristics
Depending on the climate, the flavours of Sauvignon Blanc can range from grassy to sweetly tropical, although a memorable description is “cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush”. Sauvignon Blanc is usually quite distinctive and one of the easier varietal wines to recognise by its sharp, often aggressive smell.
With natural high acidity, Sauvignon Blanc is always tangy, tart and zesty, and this character can be found even in the sweeter and desert versions; keeping them from being cloying and sticky-tasting.
Generally speaking, Sauvignon Blanc is not a wine made to last. Its popularity stems from its youthful freshness and zest, and the fact that it can be drunk immediately in the spring following the harvest. If left longer than a couple of years, most Sauvignon Blancs fade rapidly and lose their aroma. There are some examples which are made for keeping, and these are made by seriously restricting yields, and do not come from the same high yielding crops which go towards making the light, easy drinking wines.
Sauvignon Blanc and Food Matching
The bite and sharpness which are characteristic of dry wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape makes it a great accompaniment fairly rich fish dishes, as well as being a good choice to have with seafood. Its versatility means that it can handle components such as tomatoes, bell peppers, smoked cheeses and other pungent flavours which would overpower many other dry whites. Sauvignon Blanc is possibly the best dry white to accompany the greatest variety of foods. |
