Time to reassert Sauvignon Blanc’s fine wine credentials?

Sauvignon Blanc might be the most popular grape variety in the UK but its potential as a fine wine and ‘noble’ credentials need to be reasserted suggests wine writer Jamie Goode.

Sancerre

Speaking at a Central Loire wines masterclass at the London Wine Fair this week, Goode suggested that the sheer popularity of Sauvignon Blanc had earned it a poor reputation in some areas and its nobility as a grape has been overlooked.

“Sauvignon Blanc has a bad rap,” he said, “It’s not thought of as noble.”

If any wines were capable of showing Sauvignon Blanc off to its best advantage they were those from its home region of the Loire. Appellations such as Sancerre. Quincy, Reuilly and Menetou-Salon, Sauvignon Blanc are more than capable of displaying all the characteristics, diversity and finesse that led to it becoming a widely planted and popular variety in the first place.

Loire Sauvignon Blanc is one of the quintessential fine wines of the world. Superseded by the intensely aromatic Marlborough style in many consumers’ minds, the wines of the Central Loire are ripe for rediscovery and exploration by “interested wine consumers”.

As Goode said, “great wines come from great soils” and that all-important link between a grape variety and its soil was something the New World was rigorously pursuing but what regions of the Old World already have and it was “increasingly important” for the above mentioned “interested” wine consumers when they come to pick their next bottle.

This link to soil and climate was made clear from the Central Loire wines he’d chosen for the tasting, which as he pointed out showed the nuance of the variety and that it shouldn’t automatically be thought of as, “monolithic”.

“I think we’ve seen six very distinct styles,” he said. “Serious wines.”

The other downside of the commodotisation of Sauvignon Blanc is that aged examples are hard to come by, most being made for early consumption and styles that don’t age well, another factor that detracts from its status as a noble grape.

Goode however made the case for old Sauvignon Blanc saying, “I think it ages fantastically [if not made an intensely aromatic way].”

He added that a recent trip to Central Loire had involved trying wines from the 1980s, “and they were great. It doesn’t have to age but it does very well and picks up interesting layers.”

Add in the dynamic winemaking scene of the Central Loire, the willingness to experiment and adapt on the part of winemakers and an active research & development laboratory that is pioneering anti-ESCA practices, prodigious quantities of goats cheese and the stage seems nicely set for Sauvignon Blanc to show its detractors what it can do.

“Sauvignon is a variety that deserves more attention,” Goode concluded. “It’s capable of elevating itself above simple varietal wine.”

A full report on the Central Loire masterclass will appear in the June issue of the drinks business.