Wine Week 145: Sour grapes over Sauvignon Blanc?
Instead of our normal look at three wines we love this week Danny is on his own and has something different to talk about. With every wine store in the country selling Sauvignon Blanc like hot cakes Danny asks “Why?” To make things interesting Danny opens a NZ Sauv Blanc and an Aussie Riesling and puts both through their paces. The result? Not a lot of love in the room for the “Cats wee” flavour of the bigger selling Savvy. Controversial? Sure! Eye opening? Hopefully!
Download the video: (9 min 06 sec)
Windows Media (29.6 Mb) | Quicktime/iPod/iPhone (53.8 Mb) | Mpeg4 (28.7 Mb)
Cheers… and happy wine buying!
Brad and Danny
Posted by wineweek |
Comments (9)
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I agree about seeking out Riesling.
Do you find that SB produced in smaller quanities are more interesting?
I agree that many of the SB’s from New Zealand are very much cookie cutter wines.
October 23rd, 2009 | #
Hi Ron,
Yes, some of the smaller producers are doing Savvys that I (Danny) can actually enjoy. The Winegrowers of ARA Resolute is the perfect case in point I suppose. A lovely wine that doesn’t taste and smell like cats wee or sweaty armpits.
As I mentioned in the video, this isn’t an Aussie Vs New Zealand thing. There aren’t many Aussie Sauv Blancs I enjoy either! But there’s no doubt that that the vast majority of NZ Sauv Blancs aren’t to my taste at all, and that I’d rather drink a low priced Riesling 95 times out of 100.
Thanks for your comments.
October 23rd, 2009 | #
Nice one. I agree totally. Actually, Chardonnay is also coming back into fashion again now.
October 23rd, 2009 | #
Great episode. Completely agree, thanks for speaking your mind.
October 23rd, 2009 | #
Being NARB (Not Another Red Bigot), I don’t mind me whites. Of course, it is a bit of a bandwagon to sledge NZ SBs, like sledging big Barossa shirazes. There are good ones – Seresin, I suppose. But I stopped going to the NZ Wine Show because I was sick and tired of having to taste yet another freakin ‘manufactured’ Marlborough SB. So, Danny is right
, there is now an ocean of bland stuff on retail. No character.
Last riesling I had was two bottles of 2002 Grosset Polish Hill. Wowie-wowie: lanolin, touch of petrol Glycerin mouth feel but an acid spine with slate – boy, the complexity came with a bit of age. Should have left them a few more years.
At Montrachet recently here in Brisbane I had a Sancerre – a cheap one. Now there is a different take on SB.
October 23rd, 2009 | #
Complete agree with your analysis. Riesling is the white wine of my choice.
October 24th, 2009 | #
Yes- give me a Sancerre or a Pouilly-Fume any day over that NZ rubbish!
October 28th, 2009 | #
Danny…you forgot the armpit smell. I get it everytime I try one of my wifes SBs after it was pointed out to me.
She opened a ‘08 Clonakilla Riesling a few weekends back and had a couple of glasses. It sat on the door of the fridge for a week. I tryed and WOW, it had evolved into a citrus and talc beauty. Luckily I’ve got a few more.
November 6th, 2009 | #
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your feedback. I talked about it being a “almost sweaty” at about the 4:10 mark. In regards to the Clonakilla, I haven’t had it recently – but sounds like we should make a b-line for it.
Cheers
November 6th, 2009 | #