Getting savvy
SAUVIGNON BLANC MAY STILL BE RIDING HIGH, BUT THERE IS PLENTY HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES TO ENSURE THIS EVER-POPULAR VARIETY MOVES INTO THE FUTURE.
Popular and prolific, sauvignon blanc is moving into the future.
IT’S ONE OF the wine world’s greatest success stories. A wine style that captured the attention of wine drinkers around the globe like no other. Its unique aromatic and flavour profile is unmistakable and consistent, and its sense of what-you-see-is-what-you-get-ness, value for money, and crisp, refreshing drinking style has provided many fledgling wine drinkers with their first experience of fermented grape juice. It is, of course, New Zealand sauvignon blanc, which has rocketed from its early ’70s beginnings to 38,000 hectares of vines accounting for 87 per cent of New Zealand’s wine exports.
When you see a bottle on the shelf in a wine store or on a wine list, you know what you are getting – it’s one of this variety’s great advantages. But despite all this success, mention sauvignon blanc to anyone who thinks they have some sort of wine knowledge, and it’s entirely possible you’ll get a hearty serving of side-eye and under-the-breath ‘pfffting’ for your troubles. Sauvignon blanc has an image problem among the self-appointed vinous cognoscenti. I have to admit, I was suffering from a bit of sauvignon blanc burnout myself. There just seemed to be so much of this wine around. The ‘savalanche’ was real, I tell you. Then, in a moment of deep introspection and soul searching, I decided I was being a bit of a wine ponce.
We tend to lose sight of wine’s great utility value. It needs to slake one’s thirst and be delicious in the process, and sauvignon blanc covers these bases admirably. There were a couple of key moments that snapped me out of my methoxypyrazine malaise.
First, I visited the Loire Valley in France – arguably the spiritual home of sauvignon blanc until those plucky Kiwi upstarts rocked up and rattled the cage – and it rekindled my love for the variety. I found subtlety, diversity of styles and minerally savoury lines in the sauvignon blancs of the region. Cue an audible sigh of relief. Reinvigorated and enthused for all things savvy b, I headed across the ditch to the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration earlier this year. The Kiwis do these wine trade events better than most. There’s a feeling of everyone pulling in the same direction, of collegiate cooperation, and they also ask some sticky questions of themselves; it’s not just an arse-patting exercise.
There’s no doubt some storm clouds are on the horizon for this variety. Has New Zealand got all its eggs in one basket? How will they adapt to markets with looming glitches like Brexit, and how will they mitigate against climate change? There’s a lot to talk about. The line-up of speakers and events at the 2019 celebration was impressive. Keynote speaker Matt Kramer, a wine critic from the
US, kicked things off, discussing how the variety is going through a mid-life crisis. “You are the most preposterous, unpredictable success story in the world,” he told local producers. “No one’s achieved what you have done, but in wine terms you only just got here. You only started last week!”
Matt’s battle-cry was that with the ground-work of sense of place, scale and marketing nous already in place, the future lies in premiumisation, although that’s easier to say than do. The Krameresque future of sauvignon blanc is akin to something like grower Champagne, which I believe is achievable for our Kiwi friends.
“The future of New Zealand sauvignon lies in getting a premium – a commodity wine is a race to the bottom, which you don’t want and can’t afford to do. There is no culture of sauvignon blanc anywhere in the world, which is your biggest challenge in terms of being able to command a premium for your wines.”
Next up to talk was winemaker and wine writer Sam Harrop MW, who discussed a ‘sense of place’ as the key to the future of New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc, also referencing the Maori word turangawaewae (two-runga-why-why) as the antipodean equivalent of the French term ‘terroir’. It’s a lovely word. Turangawaewae are places where we feel especially empowered and connected. It’s a place to stand, to which we are deeply connected, and from which we derive some sense of our own
“THE IMAGE PROBLEM EXISTS OVER HERE AS WELL, THOUGH MANY PRODUCERS ARE PUTTING A LOT OF WORK INTO THEIR SAUVIGNON BLANCS, AND NOW IT’S ABOUT EDUCATING THE CONSUMER THAT IT IS A VARIETY THAT CAN HAVE PERSISTENCE AND LENGTH OF FLAVOUR.”
Stuart Pym, Flowstone Wines, Margaret River.
identity. By ‘we’ I mean both the vines and ourselves as humans. It’s a nice thought, huh?
Sam mentioned Central Otago’s collegiate relationship with Burgundy, which has been very successful for the southern
New Zealand region, and suggested a similar relationship with the Loire could be beneficial for the nation’s sauvignon blanc.
There was also emphasis throughout the event on sustainability, which is something New Zealand has embraced, and is way ahead of the curve when compared to Australia. The same can be said of their research into low-alcohol wines, with the collaboration between New Zealand’s winegrowers and government beginning to bear fruit after five years, with lighter-alcohol wines now outstripping organic wines in the local market.
Climate change was also a hot topic, with Steve Smith MW intimating that with increased temperatures, the characteristic grassy flavours of Marlborough sauvignon blanc may be replaced with riper aromas and flavours of citrus and nectarine. He also suggested that other varieties, in particular albarino, might thrive in the region as the mercury begins to creep up.
The New Zealanders have been no slouch when it comes to innovation within the sauvignon blanc ranks either. The detailed drilling-down into the subregional nuance of Marlborough in the Southern Valleys, Awatere and Kekerengu has shown site does impact even the punchiest of organoleptic onslaughts.
Barrel fermentation, from subtle to Spinal Tap levels of sulphides and everything in between, can be found if you scratch beneath the surface. Great examples include the Cloudy Bay Te Koko, Vavasour, Lawson’s Dry Hills Blind River Tekau and, my personal favourite, the Dog Point Block Section 94. If you seek something along the lines of a complex white Bordeaux-style blend, Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon or Te Mata Cape Crest are beauties.
There are producers toying around with skin contact from brief expressions, which provide everything from a gentle phenolic tweak to the palate to more full-on, heady orange and amber styles, with aromatic and textural profiles far from what is usually expected from the variety.
Over this side of the Tasman, Western Australian winemaker
Stuart Pym of Flowstone Wines in Margaret River echoes the conversations happening across the ditch. “The image problem exists over here as well, though many producers are putting a lot of work into their sauvignon blancs, and now it’s about educating the consumer that it is a variety that can have persistence and length of flavour. We’re seeing more skin contact and amphora work with some younger brands too,” he says.
Stuart has long modelled his wines on those of France’s Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume. “An ‘ah-ha’ moment for me came on a visit to the Loire and seeing the wines of Alphonse Mellot many years ago. Now I use 600-litre demi-muids, and I apply exactly the same viticultural rigour as I do with chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, watching crop levels and vine condition, hand-picking and whole-fruit pressed on a gentle Champagne cycle.”
Stuart says he’d like to see more site-specific, top-tier Australian sauvignon blancs on the market, and he is soon to release his own under his premium Flowstone Queen of the Crop range. “Essentially, it’s a vineyard selection with all the bells and whistles.” Producers on both sides of the Tasman are acutely aware of sauvignon blanc’s strengths and weaknesses, and while there are few headwinds for the grape variety, it’s just a matter of trimming that headsail as it moves into the future.
As for that aptly named International Sauvignon
Blanc Celebration? Three days of great presentations, tastings, incredible Kiwi food, knockout scenery and honest conversations with winemakers left me with one overriding impression: sauvignon blanc is going to be just fine.