I love wine. I will happily sip & enjoy most wines of the world & rarely decline a glass offered. Unless it’s a Sauvignon Blanc. Especially if the vintage is that displayed on the mornings newspaper 😉 That being said put some age on the old chap & I may be tempted, that or tell me he’s a good ‘oak’
New Zealand built its wine industry on its success with brash, emphatic sauvignon blancs, & California, after treating sauvignon blanc as a third-class grape for many years, is now giving it the respect it deserves, producing wines that seem to be improving every year.
Chile makes fresh, aromatic sauvignon blancs in the Casablanca Valley, & sells them at excellent prices.
Let us not forget Bordeaux, which makes a light, crisp style of sauvignon blanc as well as, from Pessac-Léognan, some of the greatest white wines in the world, especially when blended with sémillon or sauvignon gris.
But more than anywhere else, Sancerre makes sauvignon blanc wines that reflect the place more than the grape — enter GROOTE POST SEASALTER. A Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa’s West Coast, not only one I can drink & actually enjoy but one which reminds of a sancere with the same distinct salty minerality, texture and depth. Both restrained rather than exuberant, perfumed with citrus and chalk rather than bold fruit. The Seasalter also most definitely has a GPS, at first waft you can smell the west coast; the sea breeze, crushed seashells, sea pebbles, kelp.
Lukas, The winemaker says “The Seasalter embodies the Darling minerality that is so prominent in the white wines produced off the Darling Hills and this minerality is the culmination of the interplay of slope, soil, climate and proximity to the icy Atlantic Ocean”. The Seasalter 2018 is an elegant blend of 90% Sauvignon Blanc and 10% Semillon. 50% of the Sauvignon Blanc was fermented and aged for 8 months in 300-litre French Oak barrels. The remaining components were fermented in stainless steel tanks and left on the fine lees.
You can keeping topping up my glass with the Seasalter. Bringing oenophilic attention to the West Coast Terroir; lining it up with some of the best Sauvignon Blanc areas internationally.
