New Zealand is a leading wine region for Sauvignon Blanc and as a result, my dad has studied it extensively. As an analog, my dad is about as a crazy on wines as I am about coffee, ‘cept he’s been at it a lot longer.
About five years ago, my dad introduced me to the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. He described it as a wine with a cult following, with limited quantities that made it hard-to-find. When I finally had it, it was brilliant—light and refreshing, with something that just made it glide off the tongue on the finish.
Later on, knowing Cloudy Bay earned me a lot of street cred with Barry Givens, my first boss at Microsoft, when I ordered it at dinner during WPC ‘05 in Boston and Barry found himself reading about it in his magazine on the flight home. (Having Cloudy Bay at WPC has since become an annual tradition.)
Hence, no trip through New Zealand for us would have been complete without touring a view vineyards. Dad decided on Allen Scott, Saint Clair, and of course, Cloudy Bay.
Each winery had a “cellar door” where they showed us a list of wines to taste from. Allen Scott and Saint Clair had different levels, which ranged in quality/price. This was interesting, as we were able to try a Sauv Blanc blended from multiple grape blocks and produced in quantity, then move to sample one sourced from a single amazing block of grapes. The flavors explode off the palate and the way the liquid runs down your tongue is incredibly different. Both are great in their own right though. At $20-30+ per bottle, the quality already impressive.
The real surprise for us was the burgeoning Pinot Noir. New Zealand PN has been emerging in recent years and having sampled an ‘07 at each of the wineries, I can say that these guys are onto something. It’s really tough to find a good Pinot Noir (it’s notoriously tough to do well), but the single-block PNs we tried were amazing. It’ll be a few years until they’re consistent at an export quantity, but look out for this one.
All in all, if you haven’t given Sauv Blancs from these three winemakers a chance, now’s a good time. In the case of Cloudy Bay, I’ll pass on the suggestion of skipping the ‘08 vintage (cold weather year) and waiting around for the ‘09. And explore the wines when you make it down here!
No comments:
Post a Comment