The remarkable book by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz entitled ‘Wine Grapes’ was published by Allen Lane in 2012. David Cobbold was quick to purchase a copy, which has since become his reference book on the vast subject of vine varieties. He spoke with José Vouillamoz about the origins of Sauvignon Blanc. The [...]
Everyone is familiar with and enjoys Sauvignon for its incisive edge, its razor-sharp tension, but the varietal also has the ability to voice its qualities in the noble rot wine category. Encapsulating sense of place and illustrating technical prowess both in the vineyard and the winery, sweet Sauvignon blanc expresses the inherent characters of this [...]
Last summer, spurred by a surge in sales of low/no-alcohol drinks, British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s opened a pop-up pub in central London selling only alcohol-free or low alcohol drinks. The initiative once again illustrates the extent to which the category has gone mainstream. And it’s one that New Zealand’s wine industry will be toasting. Sharon [...]
Associating a relatively warm region better known for its Cabernet-Sauvignon with Sauvignon blanc may seem counterintuitive. But as Deborah Parker Wong shows, not only has Sauvignon found suitable sites in the Napa Valley, it can even excel itself in the right terroirs. Over the millennia the wandering course of the Napa River and the adjacent Conn [...]
Journalist Maurizio Valeriani briefly charts Sauvignon’s introduction to Italy in the 19thcentury to its present-day status and explains how Italian Sauvignon successfully appeals to a broad-ranging audience. A pivotal role in Italy’s wine revival Sauvignon Blanc arrived in Italy from France in the mid-1800s. Introduced into Piedmont - although some claim it came to Ferrara for [...]
Competitions do not just offer producers an opportunity to benchmark or to secure a powerful marketing tool in the event of winning a medal. They also throw up some major trends within the wine industry. Dr Carien Coetzee explains how the FNB Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 competition reveals the direction South African Sauvignon Blanc is taking [...]
When you think ‘cool climate’ Sauvignon, Portugal certainly does not automatically spring to mind. But as Dr Paul White found out, unique weather patterns and adventurous wine growers are combining to produce some offbeat Sauvignons in the most unlikely locations. Sauvignon Blanc is the sort of grape that becomes increasingly unhappy the closer it grows to [...]
Friuli-Venezia Giulia: Sauvignon consolidates the region’s reputation as a prime source for stellar white wines By Sharon Nagel The snow-capped mountains forming a backdrop to the city of Udine, in the heart of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of north-eastern Italy, offer a clue to the area’s propensity for producing top quality white wines. This year’s Concours [...]
How Sauvignon blanc took the Bourgeois family to the other side of the world An inquisitive mind is probably one of the main requisites for growing wine. But not all winegrowers use it to put their skills to the test around the other side of the world. Despite a long-standing reputation synonymous with Sancerre, the [...]
Almost all vines are now grafted onto rootstock to prevent the return of the deadly phylloxera louse. In the Loire Valley, Henry Marionnet has chosen to try to do without this usually necessary precaution in part of his vineyard. David Cobbold reports on the results of his experiments. The Touraine region of the Loire valley, apparently [...]
