Sauvignon Blanc

Directions

It may seem an open book, but your juicy, passionfruity, gooseberry-and-grass summer thirst-slaker is full of surprises...

WILD THING

What’s in a name? You may have assumed (as WineDown had, until very recently) that Sauvignon Blanc is named after its more famous and venerated relative, Cabernet Sauvignon. A frivolous sibling perhaps? A poor white cousin? Maybe even Cabernet’s misbegotten offspring... Au contraire! Sauvignon Blanc’s name derives from the French sauvage, meaning wild, and vigne meaning vine (plus the surname Blanc for white!). The variety almost certainly descended from Savagnin, an ancient white grape grown in the tiny region of Jura (the names are similar, and they share some DNA, but don’t confuse the two!), and it shares close genetic links with Chenin Blanc and Sémillon.

You Make My Heart Sing

Sauvignon (it’s OK, we’re friends: we’re on a first name basis) first cropped up in France’s Loire Valley sometime in the 1500s. It was another 200 years before Cabernet arrived on the scene. Thrillingly though, in 1997, DNA profiling revealed that Sauvignon is Cab Sauv’s parent! A chance tryst between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc in a field somewhere in Bordeaux in the 18th century had given rise to the noble progeny. Wild Child begot Blue Blood! But despite Sauv Blanc’s lofty connections, this free-wheeling variety is very much its own grape – and its distinctive, aromatic pungency, and juicy, in-your-face flavours have made it one of the most easily recognised (and screamingly popular) white wines on the planet.

You Make Everything... Grassy

Sauvignon Blanc’s flavour profile is certainly one of a kind: Fresh and zesty, with aromas of grass, gooseberry, nettle, asparagus and even cat’s pee. (It’s hard to believe that some of these are things you’d actually want to put to your lips...) Sauv’s eccentric flavour profile is the result of compounds called methoxypyrazines. We’re not throwing around big words to show off. OK, not JUST to show off. The most dominant of these compounds is Isobutyl methoxypyrazine (IBMP), which smells of capsicum, gooseberry, and grass. There are two interesting things about IBMP: one is that concentrations are markedly lower for grapes grown in warm climates; the other is that concentrations drop during ripening, and with sun exposure.

If you’re thinking that cool-climate Sauv Blanc is the way to go – go to the top of the class, clever clogs!

Cool as

We know that Sauvignon likes to keep things cool. It also has a penchant for minerals, so it’s no accident that the chilly Upper Loire, with its distinctly nippy Atlantic breezes, and chalky, flinty, limestone soils gave Sauv Blanc its start in life. Two of the Upper Loire’s most famous and enduring wines - Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé – are made exclusively from Sauvignon Blanc. Further south, in Bordeaux (the scene of the Cab Franc encounter), SB teams up with Sémillon to produce two famous styles: the region’s trademark dry Bordeaux Blend, and its delectable botrytised dessert style, Sauternes. Away from France, Sauvignon thrives in the cool northeast of Italy (in particular Friuli and Alto Adige); on the soaring slopes of southern Austria; and in parts of Serbia, Moldova, and the Czech Republic.

South of the equator, Chile and South Africa are both capable of producing great Sauvignon Blanc, and - although much of Australia is far too warm - cool climate regions such as Yarra Valley and Tasmania produce some sensationally slurpy single variety lip smackers as well as crunchy, textural SSB blends.

Wild Thing, I Think I Love You

Home isn’t necessarily the place where you were born. Sometimes, it’s the place you adopt –where you thrive, and know you are loved.

In the early 1970s, winemaking brothers Bill and Ross Spence – bored to sobs with the light and fruity Müller Thurgau that was all the rage at the time – decided to try their luck planting Sauvignon Blanc in their Auckland vineyard. It was one small step for a vine, one giant leap for... well, you know the rest.

Sauvignon Blanc changed the trajectory of the New Zealand wine industry. In return, New Zealand showed the world what a delicious, herbaceous, tropical-fruited delight Sauvignon could be. And sparked a global love affair with the wild child of wine.