The Other White Wine, Sauvignon Blanc

"The Other White Meat" was a 1980s advertising campaign slogan for pork. Sauvignon Blanc is the other white wine. As there is more than chicken to the lighter meats; there's more than Chardonnay when you want a white wine.

 

Sauvignon Blanc grapes about to be crushed
image from sonomacounty.com

Sauvignon Blanc vs. Chardonnay

SB is described as crisp, dry, refreshing with varying terms like green, minerality, and grassy. Chardonnay is usually soft, smooth, full-bodied, and has many styles from crisp with minerality and green apples to lush, tropical fruit, and vanilla. A lot of the difference comes from the use of barrels in most popular Chardonnays. SB is generally processed in tanks with no barrels, but there are exceptions. SB has higher acids, giving it the crisp and refreshing characteristics.

Sauvignon Blanc is less expensive than Chardonnay. SB grows a lot of tonnage per acre and usually goes straight to tanks then into bottles in a few months; a lot simpler than processing barrel-aged Chard. Chardonnay grapes cost more per ton than Sauvignon Blanc.

 

Where Sauvignon Blanc is Grown

Key regions for SB are the Loire Valley of France, Marlborough in New Zealand, plus Sonoma and Napa in California. We occasionally see it from Australia. Chile, and South Africa, too.

 

Fumé Blanc

In the 1960s Robert Mondavi coined the name Fumé Blanc to differentiate his Sauv Blanc from others. How much of that is marketing vs. reality is still debated. Mostly it means that anyone selling Fumé Blanc has to explain it to perspective customers, and each story is a little bit different.  :)

 

Sauvignon Blanc in Sonoma County

In 1972 David Stare planted Sauvignon Blanc for his new winery, Dry Creek Vineyards. The local old-timer farmers scratched their heads and probably called him names behind his back. "What the hell is Sauvignon Blanc, and what's it doing here? Plant Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, boy."

The sweet spot for SB (and Zinfandel BTW) seems to be Dry Creek Valley, though it's grown in many regions of the county. There are an estimated 2,600 acres of SB planted in the county, compared to over 15,000 of Chardonnay. 

A few top producers are:

• Aperture
• Chalk Hill 
• Dry Creek Vineyards (they have five different SBs) 
• Hanna (consistently a best buy) 
• Matanzas Creek
• Merry Edwards (aged in oak)