Credit: Gil Kulers
Credit: Gil Kulers
Credit: Gil Kulers
Credit: Gil Kulers
A member recently asked me for some suggestions for a wine tutorial that I could give to him and several family members. I put several topics on the table: Bordeaux, sparkling wines, why high cost does always equal high quality, pinot noirs around the world, just to name a few.
I could have easily suggested sauvignon blancs around the world, but I didn’t. It was not egregious oversight, just common sense. Why anyone would want to hear me blather for 60 or so minutes is beyond me. But if you had to hear me yap for an hour and you had to choose between tasting five or six pinot noirs or five or six sauvignon blancs, which grape are you choosing?
The sauvignon blanc class comes in a distant second every time.
Poor sauvignon blanc. Any list of noble white grapes, whether condensed or unabridged, has sauvignon blanc on it. It just doesn’t get the love people have for, say, chardonnay or the passion many folks have for riesling. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride.
It’s a shame, really. Sauvignon blanc is one of the major forces in the Loire Valley. It is a power player in Bordeaux white wine. It morphed into something between its French cousins and buttery chardonnay when it came to California in the 1970s. It single-handedly put New Zealand winemaking on the map and it is a favored white wine in South Africa and in Chile. Certainly enough for at least one wine seminar, right?
There are a few rock stars in the sauv blanc world. The rock god would probably be Silex created in the Loire Valley, France, by the late Didier Dagueneau (Dagueneau’s son, Louis-Benjamin, carries on the tradition after his father’s 2008 death). Many of the first-growth Bordeaux houses make elegant, sought-after sauvignon blancs with breath-taking prices (the 2009 Château Haut Brion Blanc will set you back $1,000). And while impressive in many ways, white Bordeaux rides in steerage, while the reds go first class.
Perhaps it’s crisis of identity. Like many European wines, you won’t see sauvignon blanc very often on the label. If your sauvignon blanc comes from the Loire Valley, you’ll see the names Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre, Quincy and Cher. If it’s white and says Bordeaux on the label, most of the blend will be sauvignon blanc. Back in the early 1970s, Robert Mondavi dubbed (but did not trademark) his sauvignon blanc fumé blanc to give it that regal French touch. Many California winemakers still use the fumé blanc moniker. You may already love sauvignon blanc and don’t know it.
California sauvignon blancs — regardless of what they’re called — are great, but they will always play second fiddle to chardonnay. In the land where sauvignon blanc truly is king, all New Zealand sauvignon blancs come in bottles with screwcaps — even the amazing 2013 Nobilo Icon ($22). While there is nothing wrong with screwcapped wines, there remains an unfair stigma about them. World-class stardom is not in the cards. And in so many other corners of the world, sauvignon blanc remains that white wine they make in addition to their standard bearer.
So maybe sauvignon blanc isn’t cut out to play first string, that doesn’t mean we can’t show it a little love. After all, what would the Lone Ranger be without Tonto, Sherlock Holmes without Dr. Watson and Spongebob without Patrick?
Gil Kulers is a sommelier and maitre d’ for an Atlanta country club. You can reach him at gil.kulers@winekulers.com.
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