It’s time to get serious about sauvignon blanc

The ‘tutti-frutti’ favourite can also do subtle, steely wines if that’s what you crave

Sauvignon blanc is one of the world’s most popular grapes, but you have to chat to a lot of winemakers before you find one who talks about it with any real affection. Matt Day looks at a laden sauv blanc vine like Sir David Attenborough gazing on a rockhopper penguin brooding its chick. “I feel like a lot of producers have almost lost the plot; they’re not inspired by sauvignon blanc any more, it’s just their cash cow,” he told me.

Day is the winemaker for Klein Constantia in South Africa, where he makes Vin de Constance, one of the world’s most famous dessert wines (Napoleon was a fan), and he puts a lot of work into the estate’s sauvignon blanc portfolio. And it is quite a portfolio: Klein Constantia has eight different sauvignon blanc labels, including one, Metis, that is made in partnership with the sancerre producer Pascal Jolivet.

Sancerre is, of course, arguably the world’s ultimate sauvignon blanc. Made in the Loire Valley in France, it is chiselled, grassy and saline; it’s not just the perfect white for a summer’s day, but also a wine that transcends its grape variety. As Day puts it: “People see sancerre as being sancerre and not being sauvignon blanc. It’s like chablis and chardonnay.”

It hasn’t been easy for sauvignon blanc grown beyond the Loire to compete with sancerre. It goes without saying that more exuberant sauvignon blancs – what Day calls “tutti-frutti wines to drink with ice in the pub” – have been ferociously successful. The obvious reference here is Marlborough, in New Zealand, which pioneered a boisterously aromatic style, often redolent of passion fruit, that has become a modern classic. New Zealand and South Africa also make plenty of greener-smelling sauvignons that can feel like a nose-punch of lemon, green capsicum, elderflower and box hedge.

But what about sauvignon blancs that taste a bit more serious? Even when they exist, they’re not always easy to find your way to. Sancerre didn’t just get lucky with geology and climate but also with the wistful sibilance of its name, which adds to the sense of desirability (Pouilly-Fumé, its neighbour across the river Loire, also makes superbly mineral sauvignon blancs, but Sancerre is the place more people know).

The fortified hilltop town is more of an upstart in the white wine department than you might think. For centuries, most wine made there was red. The arrival of the vine pest phylloxera in the late 19th century proved a hinge: in the replanting that followed, vignerons began to favour sauvignon blanc over red grapes. The story is a prompt to look around the world for other fine sauvignon blanc territories.

Situated just to the south of Cape Town, cooled by the ocean on both sides, Klein Constantia certainly looks as if it is one such. Day has spent 14 years here getting to know the vineyards and the soils: “We have decomposed granite – which for me gives the wine a dirty flint, salty, savoury-umami characteristic – and Table Mountain sandstone, which makes it more rounded.” Highlights include the Klein Constantia Block 382, which smells of struck flint, and he describes as “the closest to Pouilly-Fumé”; also the Clara, which is aged in oak, like Bordeaux; but the one that’s easiest to get hold of in this country is the Estate sauvignon blanc (see my wines of the week).

If you were looking in New Zealand for producers who take sauvignon blanc seriously, then Dog Point and Greywacke would be top of your list. Jackson Estate Stich is also brilliant – a serious wine. And there’s another region closer to home that is constantly overlooked, not least because it’s so well-known for its red wines: Bordeaux.

If “tutti-frutti” sauvignon blanc is not your thing, then white bordeaux is worth a look.

Daphne Teremetz, a wine buyer for Waitrose, describes the style: “It’s more restrained. There’s a bit more richness and ripeness than [in sauvignons from] the central Loire – sometimes a hint of guava – but there’s also steeliness and none of the sugar that you get a bit of in some Marlborough sauvignons – these wines are bone-dry.”

I also find notes of nettle. In truth, it’s tricky to offer a blanket description because in Bordeaux sauvignon blanc is often blended with semillon, sometimes also muscadelle; and it may or may not be aged in oak, giving a broad range of potential flavours from keen lemon to baked grapefruit and pine.

Bordeaux whites have not traditionally been very widely available or appreciated in the UK. I fell in love with them after visiting Bordeaux. Despite being half-French (her family is from the Loire) Teremetz says she also began exploring Bordeaux sauvignon blanc after making a reconnaissance trip to Bordeaux to put in some groundwork, travelling around as a tourist for a week before starting her job as Bordeaux buyer for Waitrose.

“I tasted at Smith Haut Lafitte, and the white wine there was just delicious. I also went to the Bar à Vin in Bordeaux city centre a few times, where you can try a lot of wines by the glass and order simple plates like charcuterie or cheese for sustenance. I remember having some delicious whites there and thinking they were amazing. I really enjoyed one called Le Dada de Rouillac, and driving back from a tasting one day I stopped to get some petrol, googled the estate and it was close by, so I dropped in and bought some bottles to take home.”

Teremetz has increased the range of white bordeaux on offer in Waitrose and says it sells well but feels one thing that holds it back is the bottle shape. I had never thought of this but think she is right.

Bordeaux sauvignon blanc is sold in the traditional, high-shouldered bottle of Bordeaux, and we are conditioned to expect more expensive/elegant white wines to come in the gently sloping Burgundy bottle shape used for, yes, chablis and other white burgundies, but also adopted by white winemakers in other parts of the world.

If you’re looking for a good sauvignon blanc to drink straight from the fridge this summer, I’ve got three cracking bottles over on the right.

‘Granite gives the wine a dirty flint, savouryumami character’