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Sauvignon Blanc Wine Tasting Notes
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2007 Starborough Marlborough, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc $13 Score: 88.0 Our tasting panel found this a delightful quaff and just the ticket for warm summer months. As you'd expect from a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Starborough shows crisp acidity coupled with silky texture. It also offers characteristic gooseberry and lime fruit, with a light grassy background. At $13 it's an excellent value, and with 40,000 cases produced it's widely available. |
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2006 Lake Sonoma Winery Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc $15 Score: 91.0 I must have liked it, as it's the only wine I actually sat down and drank after the tasting. Yet this is not a wine that will impress with it's "bells and whistles" of winemaking manipulation. Instead, it's a pure expression of varietal definition coupled with a sense of place. It's not the most complex Sauvignon Blanc I've ever encountered, but it's among the most "correct." Fresh, silky, with citrusy fruit, fresh thyme and sublime minerality, this is one of the most enjoyable Sauvignon Blanc's you'll encounter this year. It's also a bargain. |
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2006 Lake Sonoma Winery Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc $15 Score: 91.0 I must have liked it, as it's the only wine I actually sat down and drank after the tasting. Yet this is not a wine that will impress with it's "bells and whistels" of winemaking manipulation. Instead, it's a pure expression of varietal definition coupled with a sense of place. It's not the most complex Sauvignon Blanc I've ever encountered, but it's among the most "correct." Fresh, silky, with citrusy fruit, fresh thyme and sublime minerality, this is one of the most enjoyable Sauvignon Blanc's you'll encounter this year. It's also a bargain. |
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2005 Dry Creek Vineyard Sonoma County Fumé Blanc, Dry Sauvignon Blanc $13.50 Score: 86.0 Dry Creek Vineyard has always made a decent Sauvignon Blanc. The 2005 shows excellent expression fresh gooseberry and grapefruit aromas, and tart citrus on the clean, dry palate. Best enjoyed with food. |
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2005 Stone Paddock Hawkes Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc $16 Score: 100.0 In 30 years of professional tasting I've only given a handful of perfect scores (and only one other to a Sauvignon Blanc), but this is as good as it gets. Delicate, perfectly proportioned, with silky texture and lively acidity, it offers exquisite layers of gooseberry, passion fruit, nectarine and minerals in perfect balance. For this level of quality you'd expect to pay 3 or 4 times the price. Stone Paddock is a new brand. We can only hope that future offerings are as amazing as this first. |
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2005 Brassfield Estate Winery High Valley Sauvignon Blanc estate bottled $15 Score: 86.0 A classic Bordeaux-style white with 11% Semillon added to the blend. It's tart and citrusy with notes of gooseberry, flint, and just a hint of fresh herbs. Perfect for oysters on the halfshell. A decent value. |
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2005 Trinchero Mary's Vineyard Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc Reserve $16 Score: 85.0 Tart and bone dry, exhibiting austere citrus flavors with a slight grssyness, as well as an elusive flintyness (now it's here, now it's gone). A great wine for crab, shrimp or oysters. |
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2005 Brassfield Estate Winery Serenity High Valley [Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Gewurztraminer - not listed on label] $15 Score: 88.0 A delicious blend of 63% Sauvignon Blanc, 29% Pinot Grigio, and 6% Gewurztraminer from the small High Valley Appellation in Lake County (North of Napa, East of Mendocino). This is a dry wine on the palate (the barely perceptible residual sugar is balanced by good acidity and a hint of spritz). Each variety finds its expression in the blend, and together present an aromatic wine with hints of white peach, nectarine and citrus through to the tart finish. One of our consumer panel's favorites. |
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2000 Kim Crawford Marlborough New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc $18.00 Score: 87.0 "Crisp acidity, yet a silky texture give this wine a complimentary ying/yang structure. The fruit is tart gooseberry and lime with a very subtle herbaceousness, followed by a citrus and mineral finish. The quintessential shellfish wine, it should age gracefully for a decade." |
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1999 Fetzer Vineyards Echo Ridge California Sauvignon Blanc Score: 92.0 "A great palate-cleansing Sauvignon Blanc with a nose of lemongrass and pineapple, silky mouthfeel, and crisp, dry flavors of key lime and subtle mint. Perfect with Salmon in dill sauce. Fabulous value." |
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1999 Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valey Sauvignon Blanc Barrel Fermented Score: 89.0 "For those of you who want a little oak in your Sauvignon Blanc, heres a fine example of the traditional blending of Sauvignon Blanc (75%) and Semillon (25%), which displays dry honeydew melon and mineral character, just the barest hint of toasty oak and dried marjorum, and citrusy fruit in the finish. " |
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1999 Callaway Coastal California Sauvignon Blanc Score: 87.0 If you like the New Zealand style of Sauvignon Blanc, you'll love this delightful Sauvignon Blanc with gooseberry and lime fruit, silky smooth texture, and the barest hint of spice in the background. Perfect match for a wide variety of foods, from poultry and fish, to Asian cuisine. |
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