A bright and beautifully expressive Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, light straw-yellow colour with green reflections, exuberant aromas of tropical fruit, stone fruit and citrus, from mango to white peach to zesty lime, followed by intense flavours with luscious fruit sweetness and and a minerality that’s practically fizzy, juicy with a lingering salty finish.
Food pairings: This wine’s sweetness and luscious, exotic flavours make it a perfect pair for mildly spicy and creamy dishes such as Thai food. Also, its fresh acidity will balance out creamy or starchy dishes like fettuccine Alfredo, poached salmon with hollandaise sauce or chicken cordon blue.
This “Miss Savvy La Blanc” turns out to be a savvy mistress of disguise because, unfortunately, I have been unable to find out anything about the winery despite my numerous online searches. Vivino, a wine review app I use, claims that its produced by Hunter’s winery, but their website makes no mention of her. A mystery indeed, however there is much to be said about Sauvignon Blanc from this New World wine region.
“In 1975, when Marlborough’s first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted, no one could have predicted the superstar status that this variety would attain within a couple of decades.”
-www.nzwine.com
With over four decades of continuous growth in planting and exports, New Zealand has made a splash in the international wine scene and defined a new style of Sauvignon Blanc. Known for its explosive vibrancy and racy acidity, “Kiwi Savvy B” is characterised by powerful tropical fruit aromas with herbaceous and citrus undertones. Common aromas include passion fruit, gooseberry, white peach, pink grapefruit, lime, freshly cut grass, bell pepper and tomato stalk.
Marlborough is the country’s largest wine region with over 20,000 hectares of vines and 90% of New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc production. Its cool, dry climate paired with high sun exposure, stony soils and wide temperature differences between night and day are what make these wines so unique.
Despite its dazzling debut, many wine critics are now turning their backs on the wine. Some maintain that the increasing demand has led numerous producers to flood the market with lower quality wines in order to get their piece of the pie. For others the excitement of novelty has worn off and this style of wine is often criticised for lacking complexity and depth. However, wine consumers seem to disagree with over 300 tonnes being produced annually, 86% of it being exported.
To find out more about this exuberant wine, click the links below:
https://www.nzwine.com/en/winestyle/sauvignon-blanc/
https://vinepair.com/articles/new-zealand-sauvignon-blanc-guide/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/16/new-zealand-fine-wines
Vinthropology 
I’m really hooked on NZ Sauvignon Blanc which has generally superseded my love of Sancerre and Menetou Salon wines. My personal choice is the Johnson Estate Spy Valley if you can find it. It’s one of those very rare wines where I can identify many single elements including bitter orange which lasts and lasts. It’s amazing value at only £10
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Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll look out for it. It’s such an expressive style, makes a nice change to Chardonnay. I had a Chablis recently which was rather disappointing, must have been too young.
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Cru and producer?
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Saint Pierre Chablis 2018, Albert Pic. I only paid about 20 euros for it so I guess you get what you pay for, it was the first Chablis I had come across in awhile so I got it.
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Oh dear 😂😂
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Don’t judge me too harshly! 🤦♀️🤣
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Never! It gets easier when you’ve visited Chablis as many times as we have 👌😉
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Dauvissat, Raveneau, Pinson, Malandes, Camu ……… the best of the small producers, plus La Chablisienne the cooperative.
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Great, I’ll look out for those too! And maybe try a different enoteca.
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Forgot, one of your posts a couple of days back disappeared again 😂
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It did? Which one?
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I’ve had to go into my bin to find the alert. It was your current post Miss Savvy where I got an alert last Wednesday saying it had been posted! But when I went to try and read it said “oops, page not found” There was nothing there. But, the Miss Savvy post has just shown up today, but no alert for it!
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🤔 I finished it on Wednesday but scheduled it for today, maybe I haven’t got it figured out yet.
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What a beautiful wine region. I don’t know much about NZ wines, but love learning.
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Try a Sauvignon Blanc and let me know what you think!
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I have tried them in the past, but not recently. The next one I try, I will definitely let you know.
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I need to add something to this post …. since it was written I’ve tasted a lot of Bacchus based wines in England from English vineyards. I do not have the bottom up sensory abilities that you have, but I would love to have a blind challenge between ourselves and say 3 bottles each of Bacchus and Sauvignon Blanc to see if we can discriminate between them. I am really struggling but a better skilled bottom up person might be able to do it?
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Sounds interesting! I’ve never tasted Bacchus before so I may have some catching up to do, but we could try it! We could add the Sauvignon Blanc from northern Italy to the list too. Virtual blind tasting?
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I think that would be a fun event. A bit like The Judgement of Paris, not trying to catch anyone out, just an educational experience. Say 2 Bacchus and 2 Sauvignon Blanc?
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The judgement of Norfolk! 😅great idea, I’ll add it to the list!
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