This week’s show is about Sauvignon Blanc, the grape of the Loire. I continue the basic wine tasting series focusing on aroma, showcase wine podcasts and share listener comments.
Wines tasted:
– Kim Crawford, Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2004 ($16)
– Sterling Vineyards, Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2003 ($10)
– Veramonte, Sauvignon Blanc Casablanca Valley, Chile 2003 ($8)
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I’ve also tasted the Kim Crawford recently and found it a very pleasant wine at a competitive price. Good acid, very lively on the palate. Intense fruit and herbaceousness balanced nicely. I paid around $22 (AUD).
This weeks show was one of the best on winecast. I love white wine and I love the reviews. I like how you had three wines of different variety. Keep up the great work.
I appreciate your comment, Jonathan, and plan on covering more white wines this spring and summer as the weather warms up here in Minnesota. The next white will be Chardonnay in a couple of weeks, closely followed by Chenin Blanc and Viognier.
Tim,
I am really enjoying the wine tasting series, and I look forward to the virtual wine tasting. It sounds like a good idea and I will be hitting the wine store to stock up on the chardonays you will be featuring.
I also like the Kim Crawford quite a bit, and found it for $13 at Costco in San Francisco (review here). Congrats for putting up the show Tim.
Check out the Wall Street Journal wine tips clip on the Just Grapes website http://wineshop.justgrapes.net. It’s a really helpful simple outline of the basics of Sauvignon Blanc from around the world. Now that the weather is warming up a nice fresh glass of Sauvignon Blanc is exactly what I’ve been in the mood for.
I was glad to hear good things from the experts about New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs in particular because I keep finding wines from that region that really over deliver for the price. Recently I tried the New Harbor Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough which I thought had great lemony acidity but also fresh green leafy flavors; it made me think of sitting in a sunny garden and also that much more excited for the farmer’s markets to open up for the summer. And for only $15 bucks! I haven’t tried many Chilean Sauvignon Blancs yet but I love some of Chile’s Chardonnays especially the Errazuriz wild ferment which has great tropical fruit flavors and a great sort of toasty texture that I really enjoy. I’ve heard that wines made using the natural yeasts from a vineyard rather than adding commercial yeast, like Errazuriz, tend to have that kind of textured mouthfeel which adds an extra dimension to wines that are already super tasty. Cartlidge and Browne’s Sauvignon Blanc from California, which I noticed uses natural yeast as well and is also an organic wine, seems to have a similar quality.
You can probably tell that I’m super into Sauvignon Blanc right now and since they’re generally so affordable I plan to be tasting as many as I can through the summer; Just Grapes has some really awesome ones and I hope they keep posting interesting learning links like this one in the future. If anyone else sees this let me know what you think!