Sauvignon Blanc: The Chameleon

Learn About Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc, you are different wines in different places and thus are rightly called a chameleon. Your wine style is as varied as the soil you’re grown in, making you a true barometer of the landscape. You have left Oregano, Thyme and Tarragon trails in the gravels of Bordeaux and ripe fig and melon in the sands of California. In the chalks of the Loire Valley you can burst of lemon grass and gunflint, while across the globe in New Zealand, one may say that you possess pink grapefruit or gooseberries.

You have a natural tendency to be dry, yet aromatic with high acidity. You can be quite fresh and herbaceous; however, it is not unlikely to be sharply etched in flavor and even somewhat crisp. Light and sometimes medium-bodied, you are not opposed to picking up more weight if given the opportunity to age in a barrel. In that event, Sauvignon Blanc, you tend to give yourself over to the wood of the barrel, assimilating your fruity high notes into something broader and more mouth filling.

If there is a place with cool temperatures and lots of sun, you will be found there. Your vigor is your strength and you like to spread out far and wide, but left unchecked, Sauvignon Blanc, your wild nature could be your downfall. Controlled irrigation and proper canopy management is what keeps you focused. Without that supervision you will likely develop something of a bell pepper flavor, or worse, asparagus. Something that really bothers you is to not get enough sunlight and then to be picked underripe. When that happens, you will let everyone know by having an aggressive cat box odor to your nose.

You have a duel personality, Sauvignon Blanc. Under your given name, you are light-bodied wine exhibiting lots of crisp melon and grapefruit on the finish. You can be steely and racy. But on the rare occurrences when you assume your alias, Fumé Blanc, you become medium-bodied with oak flavors behind a mixture of smoke and toast.

Regardless of your mood, Sauvignon Blanc, you are a cosmopolitan of the white wine world.


Varietal Styles

    Unoaked
  • Labeled Sauvignon Blanc
  • Light-bodied
  • Transparent varietal flavor
  • Crisp Acidity and Fruit on the Finish
  • Refreshing
    Oaked
  • Called Fumé Blanc
  • Medium-bodied
  • Oak Flavors overtake Varietal Character
  • Smoke and Toast on the Finish
  • Mouth-filling

Grape Styles
Melon | Pear | Pineapple | Fig | Lemon | Gooseberry | Grapefruit | Kiwi | Hay | Grass | Green Bell Pepper | Cat Pee | Asparagus | Lemon Grass | Celery | Herbs | Gunflint | Stone | Toast | Smoke | Vanilla | Oak | Nuts

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