"marlborough" news and stories

Sauvignon Blanc is one of those white-wine grapes that folks either love or hate. It's not far off from other gourmet liquids that include Sumatra coffee or Guinness beer in that the flavor profile is bold and aggressive. Yet in the case of Sauvignon Blanc, the wine is also acidic and bright.

Find our seven favorites after the jump. When pairing with food, splurge on oysters or mussels, a great complement to these wines, which are fermented in stainless steel. As far as cheese, select varieties like aged cheddar, muenster, goat cheese, aged Asiago or aged Parmesan. You want a cheese that is going to give equal weight to the wine for a powerful match.

Don't be tempted to age these in your cellar. These wines should ideally be drunk within six to nine months of their purchase.

With the exception of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc expresses terroir, or a "sense of place," better than any other wine.

The grape picks up minerality in the soil and shows it off in the wine with an exaggerated sense. Which is why, when I heard about Sauvignon Republic, a wine company dedicated to making Sauvignon Blanc from different regions around the world, I felt like I won the wine lottery. What could be better than tasting the terroir in a single brand of Sauvignon Blancs grown and made thousands of miles from each other?

I wrote about Sauvignon Blanc last fall when the 2008s were just starting to come out of Southern Hemisphere, but now it's spring up here, and I'm in the mood for them again. Sauv Blanc is light, zingy, minerally, refreshing and perfect with so many spring foods or just for sipping on the porch now that the days are (finally!) warming up.

If you can, find all three current releases of Sauvignon Republic's wines right now ($20 each) -- one each from Sonoma, Calif.; Stellenbosch, South Africa; and Marlborough, New Zealand, three areas where Sauvignon Blanc is known to do well.

Taste them together, and even better, blind, to see if you can detect differences among them. If so, you're talking terroir.

See my tasting notes after the jump. (I blind-tasted and got them all wrong, but it was fun anyway.)

One of the reasons I miss the Bay Area is the San Francisco Chronicle. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Los Angeles Times and a couple of the writers in the weekly food section are ones I look forward to. However, the San Francisco Chronicle dedicates a whole section to wine on Thursdays (and the fact that there is no need to "register" right away).

As we've already posted, the Chronicle pays homage to the wines of New Zealand this week, but their list of 36 recommendations from the 52 wines that they tasted deserves to be singled out. They're all Sauvignon Blanc, which is what New Zealand is famous for.

• Highest ranked of their list, rated three and a half stars (***½) to 2005 Framingham Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), 2005 Matua Valley Paretai Estate Series Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), and 2005 Sauvignon Republic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($18). 2005. That was a very good year.
• Three stars (***) out of four awarded to 2005 Forrest Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($16).
• Two and half stars (**½) for just about everyone else.

  Aw, they didn't even mention my favorite Monkey.