Savoring the Savoie

When we think of French wine-growing we regions, our minds go quickly to the idyllic Loire Valley or to the chateau dotted landscape of Bordeaux. This is, of course, for good reason. Places like Bordeaux and Burgundy have become known the world over for producing high-quality wines, but they’re not the only regions in France that make delicious wines. Often, by exploring some of France’s lesser known wine regions, you’ll be rewarded with new and unusual wines of excellent quality.

One such region is the Savoie (sav-WAH), a mountainous region in Southeastern France that borders Italy and Switzerland, and one of our favorite Savoie producers is André & Michel Quenard. The father and son team are continuing a legacy started by Michel’s grandfather in the early 1900’s when he first planted vines in the area. The Quenards’ wines are all marked by a remarkably “fresh” quality, like the clean mountain air and cool glacial streams have imparted a crispness into each of their wines.

The high, Alpine vineyards aren’t ideal for growing many of the grapes that flourish elsewhere in France. In the Savoie, white wines are dominant, with a few excellent red wines being produced as well. Three of our favorite of these grape varieties are Jacquère, Rousanne, and Mondeuse.

Jacquère

Jacquère (zha-KAIR) makes a lovely, light-bodied wine that we’re absolutely in love with. Though it is often made in an off-dry style, we prefer the Quenards’ dry version or as they called it, their “Vieilles Vignes” Jacquère. “Vieille Vignes” is French for “old vines” and it’s an apt name for this wine as the vines from which it was made were planted in the 1930’s by Michel Quenard’s grandfather. Today Michel farms these old vines with the help of this two sons Guillaume and Roman. Tasting this wine is like a transatlantic trip to the French Alps. The wine has that fresh crispness of mountain air combined with a surprising richness from a wine grown so high in the mountains. You’ll also be greeted by notes of fresh white flowers and the faintest hint of honeyed apricots. This is a delicate wine and it will show best with simple dishes and cheese.

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Roussanne

Roussanne (ROO-sahn) is known for its thick and almost oily texture, and here, in the hands of the Quenard family, it really shines. The grapes for this wine are hand pruned by André Quenard himself, ensuring that each cluster of fruits reaches optimum ripenesses. The wine is called “Les Terrasses” after the steep mountain terraces that the vineyards grow on. This is a white wine that is best decanted to open up a decadently floral bouquet that seems sprinkled with lemon zest. For many, this will be their first introduction to Roussanne and what a wonderful introduction that will be!

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Mondeuse

The Mondeuse (mon-DUZE) grape has been growing in the Savoie region of France since before the Romans brought their winemaking techniques to the region thousands of years ago. Known for its striking pepper note, it is one of the parent grapes of Syrah. It’s deep purple in the glass, with strong tannins that are held in balance by a tight acidity. It has aromas of raspberry and strawberry that cushion the soft scent of autumn flowers that develops after decanting. This wine is delicious now, but could easily be aged for over 10 years in the right conditions. It’s an excellent pairing with duck, quail, or other fowl, as well as cheeses such as Reblochon and Chevrotin.

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Febuary’s Shamrock Selections

Shamrock Selections is a monthly subscription service that brings you the best wines from around the world. Each month’s selection is carefully chosen by sommelier Keegan Sparks and his team. He keeps a keen eye out for wines that are unique, rare, and new to our market. Shamrock Selections is ideal for enthusiasts and explorers who delight in finding hidden gems and trying new, exclusive vintages. Each month, you can join us on a journey of sampling and learning about some of the greatest wines in the world. Each selection of wine comes with detailed tasting notes and food pairing suggestions from our team.

As you might have noticed, we try to always give you wines that are seasonably appropriate. Light and crisp whites in the summer, with deeper and heavier reds in the winter. There are, of course, alway exceptions, but that’s a trend line we try to stick to. So, what do we do with a month like February? Just a few days ago it was almost 80º without a cloud in the sky, but as I write this (Valentine’s Day) it’s 45º and raining. Well, we tried to split the difference with a wonderfully delicate white wine and big, bold red. Drink them whenever and however you like, but as always, enjoy.

2013 Garnier & Fils Premier* Cru Chablis "Mont de Milieu"

I was recently helping a customer in the shop when he asked me about chardonnay, saying that he never drank it because of the “ABC rule.” He went on to explain that this stood for “anything but Chardonnay,” a rule he’d learned during college. I’ll admit that hearing him say this broke my heart, as there are just so many excellent chardonnays being produced in the world. Of course, for every great chardonnay, there is a…less great chardonnay out there lurking on the shelf (but not our shelf, we only stock the great ones). 

I tell this story because I’m sure there are several of you who’ve heard of the ABC rule, or who, in general, have a mental picture of chardonnay as a strangely buttery, flabby wine that’s often given out for free at charity events. I don’t blame you for being weary, but don’t worry, you’re entire life (or at least the chardonnay aspect of it) is about to change!

Chablis is a small commune in the Burgundy region of France where some of the world’s best chardonnay is grown. Chablis is a sexy, sports car version of chardonnay, the Beyoncé of Chardonnay if you will. A key thing to look for here is a racing acidity that serves as the wine’s backbone. It’s this acidity that allows the wine’s fruit flavors to really shine. Right off the bat, you’re sure to notice a strong lemon aroma (personally, it reminds me of a lemon cream), that’s followed up with notes of ripe peach and fresh pear. The finish here is quite long and commanded by a lingering hint of brioche or of lightly buttered baguette. 

A wine like this can really elevate a simple meal. One of my weeknight standby by recipes is for poached salmon with a beurre blanc sauce, and I can only imagine how well the wine’s acidity would balance with the salmon’s natural fat. If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, I think this would be an excellent pairing with a hearty grain-based salad with a light vinaigrette. 

*Now, if you look at the bottle, you’re going to see “1er” which is pronounced “premier.” Unfortunately, no one told me this until after I had been working at the shop for about six months. I had been pronouncing it “une-er.” Don’t make the same mistake I did! 

2011 Los Vascos Grande Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua, Chile

The second wine is from Chile’s Colchagua Valley. It takes the idea of a Bordeaux-style blend (i.e. lots of cabernet sauvignon, with other French blending grapes) and gives it a uniquely South American twist. The predominate grape here is still cabernet sauvignon (75%), with carmenere, malbec, and sryah rounding out the rest in almost equal amounts.

When I first opened this wine, I was struck by how reductive it was. That’s a fancy way of saying that the winemaker took special care to expose the wine to as little oxygen as possible. What that means for us is that this wine greatly benefits from being run through an aerator once (or even twice) or decanted for at least an hour.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be rewarded with a surprisingly fruity wine. The most immediate fruit notes for me were plums and blueberries. Blueberries is a tell-tale sign of malbec for me, so even had I not known where this wine was from, it would have given me a hint. Where this wine really gets interesting is its finish. There was a lot of debate amongst our staff on this, but we all came away with notes of chocolate, tobacco, black pepper (that’s the syrah saying hello!), and mocha.

This wine is just aching for food, and I want to give it some meat. I think it would be excellent with steak or pork, even lamb. Likewise, I think this would really shine if paired with a hearty pasta (ooh, lasagna!). While you’re cooking, add a splash of wine to the sauce to liven things up.

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What to Drink this Thanksgiving

If you’re anything like me, Thanksgiving can seem like the worst best holiday. Of course, there are so many great things – being surrounded by so many loved ones and tables full of wonderful food (and of course the wine to go with it!) But the holiday, especially if you’re playing host, can also be full of stress.

I may not be able to make sure your turkey comes out right, but I can at least take one stressor off your list: choosing wine.

Choosing wine for a big meal like this is harder than you might imagine. With a big group, everyone will have different tastes. Your Aunt Sue doesn’t like to drink anything other than moscato and your cousin Randy loves a merlot but hates all white wine. What’s a host to do? Well, first, you need to accept that you can’t please everyone. The most you can do it to find a wine (or two, I usually recommend a red and a white) that will be three things: tasty, affordable, and will work well with your food.

So, with those three things in mind, what should you actually get?

Well, first, let’s think about how much to get because that will often impact the wine you choose. I think it’s helpful to remember that there are 4 to 5 glasses in each standard sized bottle of wine (10 glasses if you’re getting magnums). From there, think about how much you anticipate your crowd drinking. Some people will have just one glass, and of course, others will have a bottle all to themselves (I am this person in my family and I will not apologize for it.).

So, now that we know how much we’re shopping for, what are we actually going to get? Well, as always, you have lots of options.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay can seem like the safe choice and that’s because it is. A good chardonnay, especially one with a little bit oak to it will match savory dishes that contain nuts, wild rice or apples. Chardonnay’s natural fruit flavors and spiced vanilla aroma will also go hand in hand with turkey. Alternately, if you’re not a fan of buttery chardonnays, an unoaked one will still fit the bill with its apple and lemon flavors and full-bodied profile.

Beaujolais

Is there a wine more traditionally linked to Thanksgiving than Beaujolais? I don’t think so. The link stated with a marketing gimmick that created “Beaujolais Day” as the third Thursday in November. This is the day that wine shops release the newest vintage of Beaujolais, just weeks after bottling. This weeks-old wine is made from 100% gamay, is called Beaujolais Nouveau, and its quality can vary widely each vintage. It’s not the only wine that carries the Beaujolais name, however. There are many producers in the area whose wines are all of excellent quality and would be the perfect, fruity addition to any Thanksgiving meal.

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is, for very good reason, one of the world’s most famous varieties. Its flavors range from cherry and chocolate to warm earth and mushroom. For Thanksgiving, it can work with both light and dark meat turkey as well as cream based dishes like green bean casserole. And, of course, it’s the perfect compliment to cranberry sauce!

Riesling/Gewürztraminer

For those looking for something a little less traditional, a dry riesling or gewürztraminer might just do the trick. These two grapes are widely planted in the mountains of France and Germany and both come in dry and sweet styles. The flavors of these wines can range from the sweet apple and peach of riesling to the spicy floral notes of gewürztraminer. The high acidity of these grapes will help cut through the richness of traditional holiday foods.

Champagne

What better way to show your thanks than with a toast of Champagne? But in actuality, Champagne would be a wonderful pairing throughout the entire meal. It’s bold enough to stand up to stalwart dishes like turkey and dressing, and, if your meal is skewing fruit heavy with cranberry sauce and the like, you’d find no better match than with a wonderful rosé Champagne. If true Champagne is out of your budget, no worries! There are plenty of option from all around the world that will work just as well.

A Beginner’s Guide to Bordeaux – Part 2

In our last post, we talked a bit about the grapes that make up Bordeaux’s red and white wines. This week, we’re going to dive deeper into the ways in which Bordeaux’s unique geography influences its wine.

Choose a Side

The Bordeaux region is bisected by the massive Gironde Estuary which splits at its base into the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. The estuary serves as the dividing line between what wine drinkers have come to call Bordeaux’s Left Bank and Right Bank.

Though the banks themselves are only separated by a few hundred meters, the soil composition of each side is quite different and can have a dramatic effect on which kind of grapes grow best and, in turn, can drastically affect the way wines from each bank taste.

Wines from Bordeaux’s Left Bank (much of which is actually south of the city of Bordeaux), are predominantly made up of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Here, the soil is quite gravelly with a layer of limestone bedrock far below. The gravel forces the vines to stretch their roots deep into the soil in search of nutrients. The results in wines that exceptionally long-lived and incredibly valuable.

Across the river on the Right Bank, cabernet franc replaces cabernet sauvignon as the most planted grape behind merlot. The Right Bank’s soil is much less gravely than the Left Bank, and the limestone bedrock is buried just under the surface. Wines from the Right Bank are often said to be more aromatic with smoother tannins than their Left Bank cousins.

White Wines

Of course, not all wines from Bordeaux are red. Bordeaux’s white wines are blends of sauvignon blanc, semillon, and sometimes muscadelle. White Bordeaux can come two forms: dry and sweet.

Bordeaux’s best white wines come from the Left Bank region called Pessac-Leognan, just south of Bordeaux city. These are delicious blends that, depending upon the winemaking technique, can be either light or crisp or lush and full bodied.

Perhaps the most famous white wine made in Bordeaux is Sauternes, a semillon-heavy blend that, in some cases, can age in a cellar for decades. Sauternes is made near the small village that shares its name on the banks of the Garrone River. The unique topography of the area causes the ground to be frequently covered with fog. The moisture in the morning fog, combined with the heat of the afternoon sun often results in a special kind of fungus called botrytis (also known as the noble rot) to grow on the grapes. The botrytis concentrates the sugars in the grapes and makes an incredibly sweet wine with complex notes honey, beeswax, and candied citrus peel.

Entre Deux Mers

Between the Left and Right Banks, at the bottom of Gironde Estuary is an area known as Entre Deux Mers or, literally translated as “Between Two Seas.” This is Bordeaux’s least famous region, and most of the wine grown here is made into what is known as Vin de Pays, or a inexpensive, bulk wine that is very rarely imported out of France.

A Beginner’s Guide to Bordeaux – Part 1

It seems almost too appropriate for us to start our exploration of French wine with Bordeaux. The name is synonymous with rolling green vineyards, majestic chateaux, and high quality, ageable wines.

History

As Bordeaux lies on France’s Atlantic coast, it naturally became a bustling port city, with ships regularly stopping on their way to and from other European ports. This ease of trade is one of the major reasons why Bordeaux wines are known the world over. In the earliest days of the wine trade, barrels labeled Bordeaux were already being singled out as being of above average quality.

The Bordeaux region was first loved for its sweet white wines from the area Sauternes. In the 1700’s, Thomas Jefferson was a huge fan of these wines, and as a whole, sweet wine was more popular than dry wines. Bordeaux’s red wines didn’t begin to become the superstars they are today until this 1800’s. Their popularity was bolstered by a set of laws and decrees that codified the best producers of the region, by ranking them into groups of 1 through 5.

This is now called the “1855 Classification,” and it’s still extremely important today. We’ll talk a little more about this in next week’s “Part 2” post.

The Major Grapes

Reds:

Cabernet Sauvignon – This intensely flavored and complex grape is the second most widely planted in Bordeaux. It provides structures to wines, especially those of Bordeaux’s Left Bank.

Merlot – The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux, merlot features prominently in all red Bordeaux wines where it adds depth and roundness to the blend.

Cabernet Franc – A wonderful grapes that can add aromas of spice and flowers to blends. It plays an important part in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank.

Malbec – Sometimes called côt, this grape is often added in tiny amounts to blends to add depth and nuance.

Petit Verdot – Very little petit verdot is planted and used in the wines of Bordeaux, but even a small amount can add a rich color and intensity to the blend.

Whites:

Sauvignon Blanc – A light and crisp wine with notes of green herbs and citrus. This is almost always blended with semillon.

Semillon – Sometimes known for its strong notes of lanolin, this is blended with sauvignon blanc to add structure to long aging white blends. It’s also the main grape in the sweet wine called Sauternes.

An Introduction to French Wine

This is the first part in a series of posts on, obviously, French wine. How many posts will there be? Well, . . . we’ll let you know when we find out! The truth is that we could probably go on for years about all that is French wine, but we’re trying to be concise here, so we’ll bring you one blog post a week about a different area in France. Our goal is a simple one: to educate you on the beauty of French wines. Anyone that’s ever been to our shop can attest to the fact that we love these wines and we want you to love them too!
This week, we’ll start by covering a few of the basics about the French wine industry and all of the info you need to know to get started.

Law of the Land

You have to remember that people have been making wine in France for thousands of years. Even before the Romans invaded, the first grapevines had been planted by Greek explorers and wine was a common drink among the locals.

This has given the French plenty of time to come up with complex series of laws regarding wine production and labeling, and understanding these laws is key to understanding French wine.

Here are the key things to remember:

  • Unlike wines in America, French wines are typically named after the place in which they’re made. For example, when you see a wine labeled Chablis, you automatically know two things about the wine: 1) That is was produced in the town of Chabli and 2) that it’s made of chardonnay, the only grape legally allowed to grow there.
  • The villages where wines are produced are legally defined geographic areas called, in French, an appellation. You’ll see this labeled on a bottle as either AOC (Appellation Controlee) or, more often, AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protegee).
  • Even within a single AOP, there can still be further delineation. For example, a wine from the AOP of Bordeaux could then be listed as being from the district of Margeaux or St. Emillion, and even then, it could be again listed as being from a specific village in that district, such as Soussnns in Margaux.
  • Wine in France is classified into a tiered structure, in which (generally) the more specific the classification, the better the wine should be. Often, these classes are referred to as “crus” which literally translates to “growth” in English. The top most of these is “Grand Cru” with “Premier Cru (sometimes written as 1er Cru).”

So, what do all of these laws mean for you? Well, unless you’ve been brushing up on your French geography, not much. However, this is exactly why we’re breaking down our future blog posts based on geography. We’re visiting each wine region individually so that, even if you don’t remember exactly where Vouvray is in the Tourinne region of the Loire Valley, you’ll still know that it makes some of world’s most amazing chenin blanc.

So, sit back, pour yourself a glass and enjoy!

Understanding Sweet Wines

“Is it sweet?”

This is something I get asked at least once a day. Some people are looking for sweeter wines while others are trying to avoid them. Sweetness in wines seems be something about which everyone has an opinion, but few people know exactly how to express their views.

To understand sweetness in wines, you’ll need to understand the term residual sugar (RS). RS is the amount of sugar that is left over after the fermentation process. You’ll remember that fermentation is simply the process by which yeast convert sugar into alcohol. Based on the wine and the winemaker’s desired style of wine, fermentation can either end naturally, when the yeasts have converted all of the sugar to alcohol, or stop the process early to preserve a small amount of sugar in the wine.

Talking about the amount of sugar in a wine can be difficult, in part, due to the complex wine terms that describe sweetness in wines. You can use the following terms to see the differences in wine sweetness levels.

BONE DRY: 0 grams per liter of sugar (g/L). There is no sugar at all in these wines.

DRY: 1 – 9 g/L of sugar Almost all red wines and most white wines. For most people, under 9 g/L is so low that the human tongue can’t taste the sugar.

OFF DRY: 10 – 18 g/L. This is where the sugar begins to be noticeable to the human tongue. Wines make in off dry styles include chenin blanc (often labeled as “sec”), some rieslings, and extra dry Champagne.

MEDIUM SWEET: 19 – 120 g/L. For an every-day comparison, a typical can of Coca Cola, contains about 110 g/L of sugar. This is the largest category of sweet wines, and it includes many rieslings, moscatos, and Champagnes that are labeled “demi sec” or “sec.” You’ll also find many wines made from torrontes and gewurztraminer in this category. Fortified wines, such as Madeira and Port are also in this category, though at the higher end of the spectrum.

VERY SWEET: More than 121 g/L. This is as sweet as it gets, and this category is dominated by four major wines: Rieslings, ice wines (sometimes called eiswein), the French dessert wine of Sauternes, and a Hungarian wine called Tokaji.  

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Cachaça: Your Passport to Brazil

by Seth Eli Barlow

If you were one of the millions of people who watched any coverage of the recent Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, you probably heard either the commentators or athletes raving about a local drink called the caipirinha. The caipirinha is a traditional Brazilian drink that combines lime, sugar, and the Brazilian spirit of cachaça (pronounced kun-SHAH-sa).

But what exactly is cachaca? At its most basic level, cachaça is a kind of rum. Rum and cachaça are both made from sugar cane and, as anthropologists are beginning to believe, were both invented in Brazil. They differ, however, in their production method. Cachaça is made from freshly pressed cane sugar juice that is fermented and then distilled, while rum is made from molasses. You’ll sometimes see cachaça referred to as Brazilian rum, but this misnomer is quickly falling out of use. Since 2013, when a treaty between the Brazilian and U.S. governments was signed, cachaça has been legally recognized as a separate entity from rum.

Though cachaça is often bottled immediately after distillation, in a few instances it can be aged like rum. Cachaça is unique in that it can be aged in any number of different woods. You’ll commonly find it aged in American or French oak, but it’s also aged in many of the unique woods that are found only in Brazil to give it a unique flavor.

Almost 400 million gallons are produced in Brazil, with over 95% of it being consumed there. A majority of what is exported is drunk in Germany, Japan, and Portugal, three countries with large Brazilian expat populations.

So what does cachaça actually taste like? Like rum, it can range widely based on production methods, with flavors that include baked fruits, herbs, and a leafy, herbal flavor that makes you feel like you’re drinking the Brazilian rainforest. Oak aged cachaças will often take on the character of the barrels they’re aged in with spicy or caramel-like flavors.

Cachaça can be used to make any number of amazing cocktails. Check out a few of our favorites below!

Caipirinha
Batida
Jag milk

The Beginner’s Guide to Chardonnay

by Seth Eli Barlow

Out of all the white grape varietals in the world, none are more widely planted than chardonnay. And if you think about it, it makes sense, right? I feel like the shelves of wine shops all over the world runneth over with chardonnay. Open the fridge of any suburban family and you’re likely to find a bottle of it. Every liquor store in town is going to carry it from at least five producers, and chardonnay always seems to be a wine that people find early in their wine drinking lives.

Often chardonnay gets a bad rap. I think this is because there is just so much of it produced. Unfortunately, with almost 500,000 acres of chardonnay planted around the world, there are more than a few bad bottles floating around.

So what makes chardonnay so awesome?

Well, let me step up on my soapbox…

Climate Matters

As with all grape varieties, place matters, but this is especially evident with chardonnay. The smell and taste of golden apples are present in almost all chardonnays, but the additional notes vary wildly based on local climate. Chardonnay from warmer climates, like Napa Valley in California or Australia can be almost tropical, with notes than can include papaya, mango, and even pineapple.

On the other hand, cooler climate chardonnays skew more towards Granny Smith apples, lemon, lime, and chalk. You’ll find those flavors in chardonnays from Oregon, Washington, and some cooler parts of both California and France. Just like flavor, the acidity of the wine also depends on climate. A higher growing temperature will result in a lower acidity wine, while cooler climates result in higher acidity.The same can be said for alcohol content, as well.

Creamy vs. Crisp

Just as there is a duality in the chardonnays that grow in warm versus cold climates, chardonnays can also be roughly divided by their texture. As we talked about in our post on tasting wine like a sommelier (click here if you missed it!), texture is the way a wine feels in your mouth, and chardonnays are generally either quite light and crisp or rather heavy and creamy. The reason for this in addition to climate is the introduction of oak to the wine. Oak imparts a totally new set of flavors into the wine. We talked a lot more about oak aging in a blog post here, but the tell-tell signs of oak are flavors of butter, toast, dill, and coconut.Primary Shades

It isn’t the oak aging itself that can make the wine feel thick or creamy. This texture is caused by a process called malolactic fermentation, and it can happen in any storage container, from oak barrel to steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation is the process of yeast cells transforming malic acid (the sharp acid in apples and lemons) into the softer and rounder lactic acid (the same kind of acid as in milk). In a side-by-side comparison, the transformation is striking and adds another layer of complexity to many wines. A good “rule of thumb” is that unoaked chardonnays will be lighter in color, more like straw or pale yellow, while oaked chardonnay will take on a deeper yellow, almost golden hue.

You can find excellent examples of these creamy, well-oaked chardonnays from all over the world, but some of the come from places like Napa Valley, Australia, northern Italy, the Burgundy region of France. Unoaked, crisp wines can also come from anywhere, with many notable producers in the French region of Chablis in Burgundy, Oregon, France’s Loire Valley, and New Zealand.

The Other Faces of Chardonnay

As I said before, chardonnay is incredibly versatile, it can be transformed into almost endless expressions through different winemaking techniques and practices. Two of the most common are as a sparkling wine and as a blending grape.

Chardonnay is the workhorse of the three grapes that make Champagne: chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. A Champagne made only of chardonnay is referred to as a Blanc de Blanc, or essentially “white of whites.”  A Blanc de Blanc can be made anywhere in the world, and the grapes for these wines are often the first to be harvested so that they don’t get too ripe and lose their natural acidity.These wines are ridiculously good and get even better (think more creamy and nutty) with age.

As a blending grape, chardonnay can take on an entire rainbow of additional flavors. You’ll commonly see it blending with grapes such as sauvignon blanc in France’s Loire Valley, or with viognier in warmer climates. In cooler climates, it often blended with riesling for additional aromatic notes. In California, some winemakers are even experimenting by blending it with semillon or even moscato.

Pairing Chardonnay

If you’re now worried about finding the right food to pair with all of these different styles, don’t be! As with all wine, the key here is to find a food and a wine that you really like and enjoy them together. It shouldn’t be a stressful process, so here are a few ideas to guide you:

  • For cheese, the softer the better, both goat and cow’s milk will be fine.
  • White meat, like chicken and fish are your friends.
  • The more golden the wine, the heavier the food. For a well-oaked California chardonnay, try something heavier like a corn chowder or pasta in an alfredo sauce. For a light chardonnay like those from Chablis, stick to a class pairing like oysters, scallops, or fish.
  • Bubbles help cut through salt, so pair your Blanc de Blanc with french fries, fried chicken, or other guilty pleasures.

The Beginner’s Guide to Sauvignon Blanc

by Seth Eli Barlow

My first ever wine-buying experience wasn’t a great one. In fact, it wasn’t even a good one. Shortly after I turned 21, I went to my local liquor store and began browsing the shelves of wine waiting for something to catch my eye. I was very new to wine, so much so that I still didn’t know how to tell the differences between the grapes aside from the fact that they were either red or white. In the end, I settled on a chilled bottle of white wine that had a map of New Zealand on it. I chose it based solely on the fact that I had liked the Lord of the Rings movies and thought I might like a wine from the same country in which they were filmed.

Once I tried the wine I was almost instantly disgusted.  It smelled and tasted like cat urine, and it made my mouth feel strange and tingly. It was even worse than the anything-but-the-kitchen-sink punch that I was used to drinking at parties. Needless to say, I poured the bottle out and decided to stay away from anything called sauvignon blanc again.

Flash forward almost nine years and my opinions have certainly changed. I’m now at a better place to understand what sauvignon blanc is all about. Granted, there are still a few bottles that have that “cat pee” smell, but I’m now at a better place to know what other aromas and flavors are in the wine. Likewise, I now know that tingly feeling that first bothered me was actually the wine’s natural acidity, and it’s become one of the aspects of the wine that I like most.

So for those of you who have had a problem with sauvignon blanc in the past, or if you’re familiar with the grape, but haven’t tried many styles yet, this post is for you!

A sauvignon blanc vineyard in New Zealand

Whats in a name?

Well, a lot, actually. Literally translated, sauvignon blanc means “savage white,” which, given the wine’s unabashed acidity, is a fitting name. Interestingly enough, sauvignon blanc once crossed with cabernet franc to produce cabernet sauvignon, hence the shared name combination.

Following the French naming tradition, a sauvignon blanc wine from France will be named from the place where it was grown. Sancerre, a village in the Loire valley is probably the most famous French sauvignon blanc, but you’ll also find them labeled as Quincy, Puilly-Fume, or Bordeaux.

In the United States, you might find sauvignon blanc labeled as “Fume Blanc” which became typical in the 1970’s and 80’s when California winemakers were trying to make the grape more attractive to American consumers.

The many faces of sauvignon blanc

More than almost any other grape variety, sauvignon blanc can take on wildly different styles based on where it’s made and grown. Here, we’ll go through the primary growing regions of sauvignon blanc and point out the biggest differences between styles.

France

Sauvignon blanc in France comes from two primary areas: the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. The Loire Valley cuts through central France and is known for its lush white wines. Sauvignon blanc grown here is known for its strong acidity, green apple notes, and minerality. Loire Valley sauvignon blanc is almost always fermented in steel tanks. Sometimes you’ll find a Loire Valley wine that has undergone what’s referred to as “lees aging.” This gives the wine a slightly creamy texture and can add a subtle note of bread or yeast to the wine.

Loire Valley vineyards

Loire Valley vineyards

 

South of the Loire Valley is Bordeaux, where the grape is blended with semillon to produce Bordeaux Blanc, or white Bordeaux. These wines are generally softer than their Loire cousins. This is achieved both through barrel fermentation and the addition of the less acidic semillon. These two factors combine to give the wines a depth and character that sets it apart from the steel tank-fermented Loire wines.

New Zealand

In the 1980’s, sauvignon blanc decided to go on vacation and never really came back. It found a home in New Zealand that allowed it to show its true colors, and the world has been eating it up ever since. These wines retain the classic high levels of acidity but combine it were an array of tropical flavors like grapefruit or kiwi. Like in the  Loire Valley, these wines are fermented in steel tanks and have a unique vegetal note (think asparagus or green beans).

California

Sauvignon blanc in California has historically had to play second fiddle to the wines in France and New Zealand. In large part, this can be traced back to the popularity of California chardonnay, which caused growers to be reluctant to plant the less lucrative sauvignon blanc in their vineyards. A second reason is the lack of a definitive style for sauvignon blanc in California. California winemakers have chosen different paths in their winemaking, using both steel tank and barrel fermentation, barrel aging, blending with semillon, and a number of other tricks to produce markedly different wines.

Pairing sauvignon blanc

Sauvignon blanc’s natural acidity makes it an easy wine to pair with food. It’s ideal for any dish that contains herbs like rosemary, thyme, tarragon, basil, mint, or parsley. It’s also great for foods that are a little bit more rich in fat, such as quiche, a white sauce pizza, or hummus. It’s also great for almost any salad you could make!

From now through the end of July, we’ve got select California sauvignon blancs 25% off! Stop by today and let us find the perfect wine for you.