Sauvignon Blanc
The Sauvignon Blanc grape variety is known as a crisp, dry and refreshing white wine. Most of the world’s leading wine makers currently grow this green-skinned wine grape variety, most notably France, Australia, South Africa and Chile.
Sauvignon Blanc was first regarded as a great wine in Paris during the sixties thanks to the "discovery" of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume. It was regarded mainly as a nondescript semi-sweet wine until the seventies when California-based wine maker Robert Mondavi produced a dry variety which he named Fume Blanc (as a salute to Pouilly Fume). The brand has become so successful in the United States that it is now legally recognized as a synonym for Sauvingnon Blanc.
In the nineties, wine historians say that New Zealand bolstered the popularity of Sauvignon Blanc tremendously, particularly with its production of less expensive and "varietally correct" Sauvignon Blanc wines. The excellent Sauvignon Blanc varieties coming from Australia and California also provided a major boost to the wine’s worldwide popularity, especially as a white wine drinker’s alternative to Chardonnay.
The various flavours and aromas of Sauvignon Blanc vary depending on the climate and can range from "aggressively grassy" to "sweetly tropical".
Due to its susceptibility to the so-called "noble rot", Sauvignon Blanc has become an ideal wine variety for making luscious sweet wines, especially when blended with Semillon.
The most compelling quality of Sauvignon Blanc is its distinctive aroma, which, when produced in cool climates, evokes penetrating scents of lime, passion fruit, grapefruit, green melon, bell pepper, gooseberry and even freshly mown grass. In warmer climates, Sauvignon Blanc takes on the scents and flavors of citrus, melon and passion fruit.
Traditionally, most wine producers prefer to use stainless steel containers instead of oak barrels to ferment and age the Sauvignon Blanc wine grapes. They say this gives the wine a crisper and zestier quality. Some wine makers also use malolactic fermentation but that is rare and usually limited to only a few months.
In Australia, Sauvignon Blanc is the second most popular white wine variety trailing only the ubiquitous Chardonnay in terms of vineyards by wine variety. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 472 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in 2005, trailing only Chardonnay (2,162 hectares) but ahead of such white wine varieties as Pinot Gris (228 hectares), Semillon (199 hectares), Riesling (125 hectares), Viognier (122 hectares), Muscat Gordo Blanco (84 hectares), Sultana (59 hectares) and Colombard (42 hectares).
In terms of areas of grape vineyards (bearing and non-bearing), 4,152 hectares nationwide were allocated for the production and growth of Sauvignon Blanc in 2005. That figure is a robust increase of 21.2% from the total 3,425 hectares allocated for this wine grape variety in 2004.
Wine connoisseurs recommend a slightly chilled Sauvignon Blanc with cheese or fish. But it is so versatile that it can complement everything from Caesar salad and shellfish to fried chicken. It is also one of those rare wines than can go well with sushi.
Like Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc was one of the first fine wine varieties to be bottled and sold commercially using the screwcap.
