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y Carolyn Evans-Hammond
French Sancerre is to New Zealand
Sauvignon Blanc as Audrey
Hepburn is to Angelina. The
former is classic, lean and charming, but
slowly fading into obscurity while the
latter is exciting, sassy, a tad irreverent
and all the more enticing for it. While
both wines are pure Sauvignon Blanc,
New Zealand’s version is soaring in
popularity and, like Angelina’s lips, it’s
hard not to notice.
Last year, British Columbians drank
nearly a million bottles of New Zealand
Sauvignon Blanc, up 30 percent from
2009. Meanwhile, sales of that variety
from France, Australia and the United
States dropped about 20 percent each.
Why? Because New Zealand Sauvignon
Blanc is unique, delicious and consistent.
Twist open a bottle and you can
count on a wild shock of fruit, razor-
sharp acidity, and such grab-you-by-thejugular
flavours as gooseberry, key lime,
grapefruit and cut grass. In most cases,
the wine will be untouched by oak and
it is rarely blended with other grape
varieties. It will be ready to drink upon
release, raring to deliver the ultimate
thrill. It’s pure springtime in a glass.
The experience is as though
you’ve taken a Loire-style Sauvignon
Blanc – think Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé,
or Touraine – dusted off most of the
flinty-stony minerality, polished up
the fruit and created something that
positively gleams in the mouth. Each
bracing sip works as well on its own as
with food, particularly anything with
fins or a shell. Oysters, crabcakes and
red snapper all pair swimmingly with
it, but so do the first spears of asparagus,
fresh goat’s cheese and simple salads.
New Zealand’s first Sauvignon
Blanc took the world by storm in the
mid-80s when Cloudy Bay from the
Marlborough region burst on the scene.
Critics were beside themselves with
glee, rave reviews flowed and a cult
following quickly ensued. The frenzy
not only put Marlborough on the
global wine map, it spun Marlborough
Sauvignon Blanc into stardom, starting
a worldwide phenomenon. The island
nation never looked back.
But that was a quarter of a century
ago. Athough the style of Marlborough
Sauvignon Blanc has remained fresh and
pungent, with firm acidity, producers
there have strived to differentiate
themselves from each other. So you
have Cloudy Bay now nodding toward
Sancerre, with its slight restraint and sly
hint of minerality, and Kim Crawford,
with its hallmark spark of unadulterated
gooseberry, grass and grapefruit and
every shade between.
To this day, Sauvignon Blanc
NEW ZEAlANd’S firST SAuvigNoN BlANc Took ThE World
By STorm . . .WhEN cloudy BAy from ThE mArlBorough
rEgioN BurST oN ThE ScENE. criTicS WErE BESidE
ThEmSElvES WiTh glEE, rAvE rEviEWS floWEd ANd
A culT folloWiNg Quickly ENSuEd.
accounts for roughly three quarters of all
Kiwi wine exported, the vast majority
of which is still from Marlborough – the
little coastal valley sandwiched between
two mountain ranges. The region is now
almost completely under vine, as it tries
to crank out as much Sauvignon Blanc as
possible to meet rising demand.
Today, other parts of the world
are trying to replicate Marlboroughstyle
Sauvignon Blanc. Frankly, like
Condrieu, Montrachet and classic
Chablis from the Les Clos vineyard,
Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is
unmistakable. The secret lies in the
technical details of the region’s soil
composition, temperature differences
between day and night, precise location
and so forth. But just as you don’t
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