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sauvignon blanc
2009 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
2009 Crossings Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) $9.99
“New Zealand sauvignon blanc at fighting varietal prices and it has all the crispness of its neighbors. This packs tropical fruit and melons as well as telltale grapefruit zing and rippling creekbed minerality. Easy to drink, bouncy body, but not a lightweight. Buy a case for your next fish fry, clam bake or Chinese wedding banquet.”
89 Points, Chris Sherman
Staff Selection, May 2010
Roaming Wither Hills, NZ, For good’n’ plenty sauv blanc
2008 Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc $8.99
The hills are in the view, the grapes are in Wairau Valley, a lovely chunk of Marlborough, and the sauvignon blanc is in the hands of a bright young crew led by Ben Glover.
Never heard of it? You will now. As we explore beyond the top brands, you’ll find many more hardy and fresh labels like Wither Hills and an SB that has more flavor and less price than most you know.
New Zealand does make sauv blanc for less than $15 at least at B-21.
Take it from Gourmet Traveller WINE, the glossy bible to down under drinking which gave the 2008:
“Supple, fruity wine with attractive pineapple/passionfruit flavours plus underlying gooseberry and red capsicum. One of the better examples of this vintage. Ripe with good balance and a hint of sweetness.”
For me there’s ample gooseberry, the fuzzy green fruit we call kiwi, with is its own soft sour slightly sweet fruit. Not as thorny as it sounds and shows here to be more like pineapple and melon. The grapefruit is not assaultive, more like a ruby seedless; the bell pepper is restrained. No cat spray either. Surprisingly round and easy to drink.
This will have a spot in your fridge this summer.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
What were we drinking? Molecular fun at the Breakers
2008 Craggy Range Sauvignon Blanc Te Muna Road (New Zealand) $24.99
We were in L’Escalier the grand wow- some dining room of the Breakers in Palm Beach, true clash of the vintages. Hotel was built in the 1920s in the style of Italy in the 1500s; the furniture from Louis XIV, up dated with Alphnse Mucha poufs from 1900.
The cooking was pure 21stcentury with explosive diversity thanks to the shape-shifting magic chef Greg Vassos learned in Spain. He can can transmogrify butternut squash into a pair of dice, make tiny pearls of prosciutto and turn corn broth into truffles. When a single course may have peeky toe crab and mascarpone cheese in an open ravioli and across the table there was perfect duck breast, caramelized endive, walnuts, black raisins, spiced duck jus. And so it went, course after course, for three diners.
What to drink, the problem of wine-food pairing in any modern restaurant cubed. The old rules for careful pairing still make sense IF we’re all having the same thing or eating course by course in lockstep.
That happens usually at home but rarely when dining out. Which is why the smart move for most tables is to head to the middle of the wine list for crisp Whites, Rosés, Pinot Noir or the “alternatives” section which usually includes Rieslings and Rhone whites, lighthearted Med and Italian reds.
There’s one other route: Ask for help… especially when you’re presented with a thousand choices on an award winning list. It’s the right call at the Breakers, which has quietly assembled a sommelier corps as first class and diverse as its wine list.
The solution to the specific riddle, sommelier Juan Gomez and I agreed was a New Zealand Sauv Blanc, but not the usual Marlborough stuff.
The choice was the 2008 Craggy Range Te Muna from Martinborough across the water on the North Island. It’s unusually rich, ripe and tropical, crisp where we needed it yet full-bodied too. A real multi-tasker, and one of the best SB’s on B-21’s shelves ($24.95) if you’re having peek toe and duck at home. Or any kind of crab, shrimp or fish. And I plan to try it with a roast chicken and prosciutto.
P.S. – Even if you don’t dine and drink in Palm Beach, you’ll soon encounter the Breakers school of innovative wine stewardship elsewhere in fine dining of tomorrow.
Virginia Phillip, one of ten female master sommeliers in the world, supervises three wine cellars and wine lists at the resort’s nine restaurants (Italian to Asian) and is dedicated to training the next generation of sommeliers, on site and in ongoing programs. Under her tutelage Gomez became the first master sommelier from Mexico. Newest wine staffer is Roxane Shafaee-Moghadam, moved to Palm Beach after three years running the wine program at Thomas Keller’s Per Se.
New foods, new wines, new ideas. Start tasting.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Fun at $10 below. New Zealand sauv blanc.
And from Marlborough, too. Yes, you don’t have to spend big for big taste, you have to buy wisely from the thousands of wineries out there, new and old. If you get lost, trust B-21’s compass.
Consider Marlborough, the fashion leader in new-era Sauvignon Blanc, crisp as Sancerre with aroma to overpower a Rhine maiden. In the last decade it’s become synonymous with some very big names. Yet Marlborough’s a big region with a lot of winemakers who toil hard on the same terroir.
2009 Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc - $8.99
Take the road farther east out to Awatere on the edge of the Pacific and you’ll find some bargains. I’ve already touted The Crossings ($9.99) as a lively SB refresher, with enough lemon grass and lime for a Thai dinner. Now I’ve found an even better deal from an Awatere neighbor, 2007 Clifford Bay at $8.99.
When you open the bottle gooseberries (kiwis to us) and lime juice smack you like a Key lime pie in the face. You won’t get grapefruit in the mouth, just everything else, kiwi, citrus and pineapple with a lively bite of green pepper at the end, all in a very clean package. I had it with fresh pompano sautéed in olive oil, red rice and bokchoy and garlic. Didn’t need no stinkin’ lemon wedge.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler