Sauvignon Blanc of the World Comparison Tasting

This is the fifth in our exciting series of grape variety tastings showcasing some of the best examples across the world of wine of a given variety. On this evening, we will be tasting eight fantastic expressions of Sauvignon Blanc really capturing a wide range of styles of this expressive aromatic variety. As always on these tastings, wine school founder Jimmy Smith will be including full WSET examiner’s tasting notes.

Rather attend an online tasting? We are also hosting this tasting online on: Thursday 16th June 2022 at 7:30pm!

Sauvignon Blanc

Often called simply Sauvignon, this is an extremely popular variety making crisp, dry, aromatic and extremely distinctive wines all over the world. The smell is sharp and piercing (unlike that of Chardonnay) and reminds different tasters variously of gooseberries, nettles, crushed blackcurrant leaves, and occasionally cat’s pee! The smell of Sauvignon (which is most of its character) is relatively simple, so it is not surprising that it was one of the first to be explained in terms of the dominant flavour compounds, called methoxypyrazines, producing those intense herbaceous characters.

Most Sauvignon Blanc is fermented at relatively low temperatures in stainless steel with the intention of preserving every bit of youthful fruit. The wines are in general designed to be drunk as young as possible, although some of the fruit from particularly low-yielding vineyards can be concentrated to withstand oak ageing and may need a year or so in bottle before showing their best. Examples of these include Greywacke’s wild ferment, and traditional Sancerres and Pouilly-Fumes.

Sauvignon Blanc's French stronghold is the upper Loire, and the twin appellations of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in particular and genuinely express terroir with nuances dependent on the proportion of gravel and flint (silex) in the soil. Often blended with the fatter and complementary Semillon, is one of the two dominant white grapes of south-west France. Most white Bordeaux is based on one or both of these. Sauvignon Blanc is also grown in the Entre-Deux-Mers where it is increasingly important in improving Bordeaux Blanc as well as in Graves and Pessac-Léognan where, with Semillon in varying proportions, it results in substantial dry, oak-aged white wines.

But the world's most famous Sauvignon Blanc is grown a very long way from Europe. New Zealand burst on the international scene in the 1980s with an extravagantly forceful, fruity style of Sauvignon Blanc and has never looked back. One region, Marlborough at the north end of New Zealand's South Island has set a benchmark for this style, in which bold flavours are thought by some scientists to have been encouraged by the notorious holes in the ozone layer in this part of the world. Here extremely vigorous Sauvignon Blanc vines seem particularly at home in the dry gravels of Marlborough's Wairau Valley. Other interesting examples are made in countries such as Chile and California where it is often barrel-matured in the latter (Fume Blanc).

Wines on Tasting:

• Serge Dagueneau & Fills, Pouilly Fumé Tradition, Loire, France, 2020

• Domaine Thomas, Le Perrier Sancerre, Loire, France, 2020

• Chateau Oliver Blanc, Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux, 2016

• Livio Felluga Sauvignon Colli Orientali del Friuli, Italy, 2020

• Villa Maria 'Taylors Pass' Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2020

• Greywacke Wild Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2019/2020

• Robert Mondavi, Fume Blanc, Napa, California, 2019

RATHER ATTEND THIS TASTING ONLINE? We are hosting this same tasting earlier in the year online on Thursday 16th June 2022 at 7:30pm.