More Sauvignon Blancs !

 

APERTURE

The term "aperture" is typically employed in the world of photography, as it refers to the opening of a len's diaphragm  Photographers will speak about f-stops as this refers to how wide the opening on the lens is set.

So why would someone name their winery "Aperture"?  Maybe because winemaker Jesse Katz has a famous photographer father, Andy Katz.  The senior Katz grew up enthralled by the world of photography and has, indeed, traveled around the world with his camera.  Aside from having his work on some record album covers (Dan Fogelberg and the Doobie Brothers), he's got more than a dozen coffee-table books to his credit.

 

Jesse accompanied his Pop on numerous trips from their Colorado home-base and so he was able to visit not only Napa and Sonoma, but Burgundy and Bordeaux along with other far-flung places.

In Burgundy, as a youngster, he noticed how wines tasted differently simply based upon the location of the vineyard site.   As a kid, having been to Bordeaux, he was enchanted by the various red and white wines made by top châteaux there.  

Katz studied class-room winemaking at Fresno State and then got himself an internship in Argentina at the Noemia winery.  He came back to California and worked at the Robert Foley in Napa before packing his bags and heading back to Argentina to work the harvest at Paul Hobbs' Viña Cobos.  Somewhere along the line he also interned at the famous Pomerol estate of Château Petrus.  Coming back to Napa, he worked a harvest at Screaming Eagle and then was tabbed to be the winemaker at Sonoma's Roth Estate Winery and neighboring Lancaster Estate.

During his tenure at those wineries, he launched his own brands, creating the Aperture project along with one focusing on Malbec (called Devil's Proof...really expensive Malbec!).  He's got some high-power financial backers in this endeavor, partnering with Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros baseball  team along with some other affluent backers who are wine fans.

The winery is located north of the Rodney Strong winery and south of Foppiano Vineyards.  They invested in 40 acres of prospective vineyard and winery land, along with their leading another 50 acres to allow for expanding their production.  


Katz was enthralled with the white wine made in Bordeaux at Château Haut Brion.  He imports barrels which have French oak staves, but, unusually, barrels heads made of Acacia wood.  

The grapes comes from a vineyard site in Sonoma's Bennett Valley.  We recall early vintages of winemaker Merry Edwards' "Matanzas Creek" Sauvignon Blanc which we think came from this area.  Quite special, as it's a cool site requiring longer hang time for the fruit to mature.

The grapes are whole-cluster pressed and then the juice is settled in stainless steel.  They rack the clear juice off the heavy sediment and allow it to warm a bit so the indigenous yeasts can get to work.  About halfway through the fermentation, it's transferred into barrel.  One third into neutral, seasoned cooperage, one-third into once-used barrels and the remaining third goes into brand new cooperage.

The barrels are topped weekly once the fermentation stops and they do stir the lees which contributes a bit of toastiness.

The wine does resemble a white Bordeaux, so he's done a good job in creating a California Sauvignon (which has a drop of Semillon in the blend) that tips its chapeau to those top whites from France's Pessac-Léognan region.  Happily, the wine is reasonably-priced so you don't have to drop a hundred bucks (or more!) to enjoy this terrific wine.

 

Currently in stock:  2019 APERTURE "Sonoma County" SAUVIGNON BLANC  Sold Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

MASSICAN

This little enterprise is the work of Dan Petroski, who until recently had his day job at the Larkmead winery making Cabernets. 

The Massican project was a bit more than a hobby, but a smallish production of white wines only.   It's named after Monte Massico, a place north of Naples in Italy where his great grandfather had lived.  In his youth he'd traveled around Italy and was enthralled with the culture and wine.  In fact, he spent a harvest season at a Sicilian winery.  He was bored with his life in New York after his college studies and came to California and interning at some wineries in Sonoma before landing a gig at Napa's Larkmead Vineyards.  

We've enjoyed a couple of white wines from Petroski as he makes a white wine blend called Annia that features Tocai Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and a bit of Chardonnay.  These are grape varieties you'll find in Italy's Friuli region and it's been a pretty cool wine.  If it's not absurdly priced on a restaurant wine list, we will sometimes order a bottle.  In fact, we blew the minds of some Friulian friends a few years ago when they visited San Francisco and we saw it on a City restaurant wine list.

Another variety that does well in Friuli is Sauvignon Blanc.  There are some pretty good Sauvignons made there.

And Massican does a good job with Napa Valley fruit.  

They have a remarkable bit of information about the 2020 vintage on their website.

Can you imagine that?  The vineyards are warmest during the day and coolest at night!!!

Bravo!  

More wineries should try that!
;)

The 2020 is quite dry and nicely acidic.   There's a stony, almost flinty character to this wine.  We find it a bit less herbal or grassy than some of the Friulian Sauvignons we like, but it's a good bottle of wine in any case.

Currently in stock:  MASSICAN 2020 Napa Valley SAUVIGNON BLANC  Sale $29.99

 

THE OJAI VINEYARD
2020 Santa Barbara County  Sauvignon Blanc  Sold Out

Adam Tolmach is one of the leading winemakers in the Santa Barbara County area.  Never mind that his winery is actually located in neighboring Ventura County.

Adam has made Sauvignon Blanc for many years.  More than a decade and a half ago the wine had a substantial percentage of Semillon and oak, his wines emulating some top white Bordeaux way back when.

I'd say recent vintages have been more along the lines of Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé wines.

 

While enrolled at UC Davis Adam would periodically drive to Berkeley to check out the selections at Kermit Lynch's little French wine emporium.  He tended to explore the reds from the Northern Rhône and whites from the Loire and this, Tolmach says, left an indelible impression on his winemaking.  When he planted his first vines at Ojai he chose Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc.

Since 1998 he's been sourcing Sauvignon Blanc from what is now called the McGinley Vineyard.  Back in the old days it was called the Westerly Vineyard, but some vineyard land was sold (to McGinley) and Westerly makes wines under its own label.

Despite being, at one point, named Westerly, the vineyard is actually in a place called Happy Canyon and it's in the easternmost part of Santa Barbara's wine region.  After buying grapes "by the ton," Tolmach buys the fruit "by the acre" and directs the viticultural practices.  The production per acre is rather small, but it does allow the grape to shine and bring along with it some "terroir."  They've improved their general viticulture and now farm "organically," as we understand the current state of affairs.  

Along the way he's changed how the vines are trained and they moved from what is called "cane pruning" to "cordon.  The idea is to have a smaller crop which should yield more intensely-flavored fruit.  At one point Adam bought some grapes from adjacent vineyards which were conventionally-farmed just to test his theory.  Wine from those more prolifically-cropped vines was acceptable, he says, but the wine from the shy-bearing vineyards produced wine of higher quality (and it seems to have a longer life span).   

The 2020 vintage is the current, recent release and, as usual, it's a good bottle of wine.  Maybe a tad young, yet, even.  The wine is fermented in seasoned oak cooperage and we don't find any impact from the oak here.
This is a medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc...not styled along the lines of a white Bordeaux and not like the hugely aromatic New Zealand wines.  It's a little bit quiet presently.

Winemaker Adam Tolmach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANDREW RICH

Andrew Rich produces some delightfully soulful wines at the Winemaker's Studio in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

We're fans of his Pinot Noirs the past few vintages and his Sauvignon Blanc has been exceptional and, we feel, the reference point for the variety in Oregon.

Currently in stock:  ANDREW RICH 2021 Willamette Valley SAUVIGNON BLANC $24.99

CADE ESTATE WINERY

Cade is a project owned by California Governor Gavin Newsom and his buddies Gordon Getty and John Conover.

The winery is located on Howell Mountain, east of St. Helena and it's a "green" project.  

They 2022 vintage of Napa Sauvignon Blanc comes from six vineyard sites.  Two are estate-owned vineyards, one in Oakville and the other near the winery on Howell Mountain.  Add to this grapes from Oak Knoll, St. Helena and Pope Valley.  To create a wine of complexity they've used stainless steel mostly and a bit of oak, only six percent of the barrels being new.  
Previous vintages they employed concrete eggs, but this vintage they do not mention those.

It's damned near entirely Sauvignon Blanc except for two percent Semillon and 1% Viognier.  There's a small percentage of the aromatic Sauvignon Musqué in the blend.

After the fermentation the wine remains on the spent yeast for about five months, but they don't disturb the wine by stirring it.

The resulting wine focuses on citrusy notes with lemon and lime dominating.  There's a touch of a melon-like quality, too.

It's dry and crisp and that little bit of wood doesn't show up on the nose and palate as being "woody."

Currently in stock:  CADE 2019 Napa SAUVIGNON BLANC  $39.99

 

HAGAFEN

Few California vintners pick their grapes at 21 or 22 degrees Brix (a measure of sugar).  For most, that's way too low, yielding a wine of merely 12 or 12.5% alcohol.  Everyone wants to make powerful wines...wines viewed as "important."

Winemaker Ernie Weir is an old-timer and he hasn't changed his style of winemaking to meet today's fashion for extreme wines, sweet wines or high-octane bottlings.  His Sauvignon Blanc is typically below 14% alcohol.  The 2018 is listed as a mere 12.5%.

Another feature of the Hagafen winery is that the wines are Kosher.  This used to be THE major selling point for this brand many years ago.  But nobody makes a fuss over Colgate toothpaste or Comet cleanser being Kosher and today the sales pitch for Hagafen is more about the quality of the wine.  That they are Kosher is only incidental.  

On the other hand, making Kosher wines has its challenges:  a couple of important Jewish holidays tend to fall during the grape harvest, so Weir has to plan ahead for details such as picking and cellar work.  

Currently in stock:  HAGAFEN 2018 Napa/Sonoma SAUVIGNON BLANC  SALE $19.99

CORMORANT

Winemaker Charlie Gilmore has taken flight numerous times, much like the bird his winery is named after.  He worked harvests at Artesa, Cakebread, Rosenblum and Gundlach-Bundschu before heading off to Australia's Barossa Valley for the 2004 vintage Down Under.  For more than a decade he was a winemaker for Fetzer and Jekel where he got a dose of environmentally-conscious viticulture and winemaking.

He launched his Cormorant brand with the 2018 vintage, making wine from an organically-farmed vineyard in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley, one of the best places for the Sauvignon Blanc grape in our view.

The Martorana Family, who grew the grapes, allowed Mr. Gilmore to make the wine in their little cellar and he did so with great care as he was seeking to make something that might be dubbed "natural."  We are a bit unsure about wines marketed as such, having found that terminology is often employed as an excuse for odd and unusual wine.

 

But Gilmore's idea of natural was simply to crush the organically-farmed Martorana Sauvignon Blanc, transfer the juice to a few stainless steel drums and one, lone French oak barrel and let nature take its course.  Between the indigenous yeasts on the grape skins and that of the cellar he was able to ferment the wine to just under 13% alcohol.  It's preserved by a high level of acidity and low pH.   He stirred the yeast sediment a number of times to keep the wine a bit hazy (some enologists will tell you this can allow for less sulphur to be used until bottling) in an effort to enhance the texture of the wine.

When that moment-of-truth came, bottling, he did add a small amount of SO2 to keep the wine in good condition over the course of its life in the bottle.

We noticed the wine is not brilliantly clear in terms of its appearance as he didn't filter the wine in an effort to retain greater aromatics and flavors.

The wine, as noted, is crisp and tangy in terms of acidity.  It's the sort of wine that can easily pair with sautéed or pan-fried seafood or warm weather seafood salads.

 

Currently in stock:  2018 CORMORANT Dry Creek Valley SAUVIGNON BLANC  $23.99

 

 

 

CLOUDY BAY

This winery became an overnight success back in the mid-1980s on the strength of good wines and favorable reviews from some important critics. This winery is the leading name in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, though many New Zealanders are curious as to why the wine is SO popular these days, since they often  feel others do as fine a job with the grape. 

Well, when you're identified as the "best" (and the first), people tend to want to buy your wine. Imported to the U.S. market by the Clicquot Champagne folks, this wine has been sold, for the most part, to those establishments which manage to move a lot of Clicquot Champagne. 

They've ramped up production over the past decade and supply issues are possibly a thing of the past.

We like the Cloudy Bay wines and enjoy, from time to time, their Sauvignon Blanc. Some describe it as having the "gooseberry," citrus and lychee fragrances and flavors which are typical of New Zealand's Sauvignons.

 

 

 

The 2020 vintage was harvested over several weeks under good climatic conditions.  One of the biggest challenges, though, was the Covid Pandemic and having people working in the vineyards and cellar.  
It had been a dry growing season and the vineyard crew did not have much in the way of weather challenges.

Most of the juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks, though they do give a tiny percentage of the production fermentation in seasoned (neutral) wood barrels.  They use some cultured yeasts to encourage a certain aromatic character and some indigenous yeasts to bring additional complexity to the wine.

It's the usual showy Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want the "unusual Cloudy Bay" Sauvignon, splurge and purchase a bottle of the 2014 Te Koko bottling.  

This comes from older vineyards and the 2014 vintage was harvested in less than a week.  The juice is fermented with indigenous yeasts (at the outset anyway, but they don't tell us if they add some cultured yeasts to ensure the fermentation is complete) and it's vinified in barrel with just 8% of the wooden being brand new.  
There's a bit of malolactic fermentation yet the acidity is still rather high, giving the wine a terrific, crisp finish.

Currently available: 2020 Sauvignon Blanc  SALE $31.99
2014 TE KOKO Sauvignon Blanc  Sale Sold Out

DOG POINT 

This lovely winery was founded by a couple of fellows who "graduated" from the University of Cloudy Bay in New Zealand's Marlborough country.

Winemaker James Healy and viticulture guru Ivan Sutherland (and their wives) launched this brand in the early 2000s.    They have about 80 hectares of grapes and produce four wines:  Two Sauvignon Blancs, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir.

We have found recent vintages to be exceptional, particularly their upper-tier wine called Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc.

Vineyards are farmed organically and they started down this environmentally-conscious path in 2009.  They have some sort of certification, as well.    The company brings in more than 2000 sheep and a couple of dozen steers to "weed" their way through the vineyards in the winter.

Dog Point's vineyards are pruned to produce modest quantities as they don't go for maximum yields.  We know, for example, many Napa wineries make rather empty wines knowing the Napa appellation on the label gets them $20-$50 for Sauvignon Blanc even when the vineyards are severely over-cropped and the wines are rather anonymous in the glass.

Hand harvested fruit is part of the Dog Point protocol.  No machine harvesting.  

We have found the Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc to be quite striking and of exceptional quality.  

The fruit comes from a vineyard that was planted in 1992.  The grapes are whole-cluster pressed and the juice goes into older French oak cooperage for its fermentation and aging.  It spends about 18 months in wood and develops an exceptionally smoky, toasty, leesy quality which reminds us, to some extent, of the splendid Puligny Montrachets of Domaine Leflaive from Burgundy.  (Of course, yes, those are not made of Sauvignon Blanc...but if you like the style of Leflaive, you'll probably appreciate this Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc.)

Dog Point wines are not subjected to a fining treatment to clarify them and they employ but a light filtration.  

We have the 2014 in stock presently.  It's bone dry and lip-smacking crisp and tart.  

We recently met one of the offspring of the Dog Point founders and told her we routinely require any customer bringing this wine to the check-out counter to show their identification card to prove they're an adult.  She laughed, but the notion is this is not a wine for "kids" or people who drink a lot of the industrial plonk being made at the direction of a marketing department expert.  It's not "dumbed down" for the average bear.

It's really magnificent...serious Sauvignon Blanc for someone who's looking for a wine for contemplation and for pairing with serious cuisine.

If that sounds like you, please stop by and snag a bottle.

Currently in stock:  DOG POINT 2014 Marlborough "Section 94" SAUVIGNON BLANC  Sold Out

SHARED NOTES 

A winemaking couple produces this serious blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.  


The He here is Jeff Pisoni, son of Gary Pisoni, a major celebrity and crazy man from Monterey's Santa Lucia Highlands.

The She here is Bibiana González Rave who hails from Colombia.  Mrs. Pisoni spent time in France and has a degree ffrom the University of Bordeaux in addition to working at Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Château Haut-Brion.

Since everything sounds more romantic in French, one bottling is called Les Leçons des maîtres  which means Lessons of the Masters.

The couple make but a few barrels of this lovely, pricey blend from three vineyards in Sonoma's Russian River Valley.  The Sauvignon comes from the Kirk Ranch and Beltane Ranch vineyards (we think) while the Semillon, which accounts for 24% of the blend in the 2018 vintage, comes from the Marino vineyard.  The juice was barrel fermented and the wine spent about 8 months on the spent yeast.

It's a nicely intense dry white.  We like the peach and melon notes.  We might consider this to be their tip-of-the-cap to Bordeaux.

The price is a bit ambitious, but we do get requests for some deluxe California Sauvignon Blanc and this is special.  We even splurged to put this on our own dinner table when hosting friends from out of the country for a special meal.  Damned good!

A second, tiny production bottling is called Les Pierres qui décident.  (The rocks that decide.)

The 2017 "Les Pierres" is outstanding and it reminded us of Pouilly-Fumé wines made by the late Didier Dagueneau back in the early 2000s.
It comes from two vineyard sites, one in the Russian River Valley and the other a bit north and east of Santa Rosa.

The wine is 100% Sauvignon Blanc and it's entirely of the Musqué clone.
Both vineyards were harvested during the last week of August in an effort to capture bright fruit and crisp acidity.

They tell us the wine was aged in French oak, but the wood is well integrated into the wine and we are not especially sensitive to the oak here.  The secret is they use puncheons rather than smaller barriques for this bottling.  That means less surface area of the wine to oak.

It's a remarkable bottle and one of California's most striking Sauvignons.  

We suspect vignerons in the Loire Valley would be proud to have their label on this wine!

 

 

 

Currently in stock:  SHARED NOTES 2018 Russian River Valley "Les Leçons des Maîtres"  $64.99
SHARED NOTES 2017 Sonoma "Les Pierres qui Décident" Sold Out

NAUTILUS ESTATE OF MARLBOROUGH

Nautilus is one of the older wineries in New Zealand's Marlborough country.  The place was founded in 1985 and it's a family-owned establishment.  

They make a range of wines, but we know them as a good source of Sauvignon Blanc.

It's got the classic citrusy notes of New Zealand Sauvignons but it's not over-the-top fruity.

The 2018 is in stock presently.  Quite dry and very crisp.  It's fermented in stainless steel tanks for the most part.  We aren't sensitive to the three-percent barrel-fermented juice.  

The alcohol is relatively low...a mere 12.5%.

It's a terrific cocktail white and you can easily pair it with sushi or seafood.

Currently in stock:  2018 NAUTILUS ESTATE Marlborough SAUVIGNON BLANC  Sale $17.99

 

 

 

 

 

ROBERT MONDAVI WINERY

Mr. Mondavi is to be credited with Sauvignon Blanc being as popular as it is in the U.S. market.  He made Sauvignon in 1966 as a dry wine.  In 1967 he made a sweet wine.  He came up with the name "Fumé Blanc" and his wine was instantly popular, a finer alternative to the white wines of those days:  Grey Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Green Hungarian and California "Chablis."  

Over the years they've continued to make good "Fumé Blanc," adding a "Reserve" bottling and a regional bottling to their line-up.  Most stunning is a Fumé Blanc from an old vineyard called "To Kalon," which has been planted since 1868 and was planted by Henry Crabb.  Mondavi claims it is the oldest Sauvignon Blanc vineyard in California.  They made a special bottling called "I-Block" amounting to but a few hundred cases.  Much in the style of a top white Bordeaux, this is excellent, but expensive.  It's a far cry from the watery wine they make out in Lodi's "Woodbridge" area!

Mondavi raised the price from an ambitious $50 to $75 and we lost interest in the wine...I noticed the distributor no longer even offers this special bottling, so I suppose the Mondavi folks are drinking it all themselves.  It's something like $90 a bottle we understand.

Currently in stock:   2002 Mondavi "To Kalon - I Block" Fumé Blanc Sold Out

 

TEMENT 
2010 Austrian SAUVIGNON BLANC "Zieregg"  $54.99

I am certain that few people walking through our doors has even the slightest clue that some of the world's best Sauvignon Blanc wines are made in Austria's Steiermark region.  

An Italian friend who lives in the Alto Adige (they call it the Sudtirol) told me he organizes a blind-tasting of Sauvignons every year and Tement's wine usually wins.

Not surprised.

Tement makes great Sauvignons.  He now has half a dozen different bottlings!  The range is impressive.  And Tement makes a whole host of other wines, as well, but Sauvignon Blanc seems to be the big ambassador for the winery in the international market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The special bottling is called Zieregg and it's a bit of a splurge for most people.  On the other hand, wines of similar quality from producers such as Dagueneau or Smith-Haut-Lafitte have now become much more expensive than Tement's fabulous wine.

Tement uses neutral wood to mature this wine and the casks are large, too.  They give it a year and a half in the cellar, but say it doesn't really blossom until somewhere between two and four years.  But don't be in a rush to drink this.  Tement says you can hold this for 15 years, as the wine, thanks to its bracing acidity, ages gracefully.

This is one of those "connoisseur wines" that most people don't know about (here in the US market, anyway).  It's remarkable and worth trying.

 

 

NEUMEISTER

The Neumeister family has about 50 acres of vineyards in Austria's Steiermark region.  Located in the town of Straden, the, this is very close to Slovenia and Hungary.

Soil types here tend toward volcanic and basalt.  The rather cool climate produces marvelous Sauvignon Blanc wines and we're fond of the Neumeister's efforts.

Their "Klassik" Sauvignon Blanc is a delight.  

We currently have the 2003 vintage in stock and it's a remarkably fresh, citrusy and dry wine.  The grape dominates as oak is not a feature of this wine.  This is a good match for all sorts of seafood, but it can be partnered with well-seasoned, spicy foods, too.

Currently in stock:  2003 Neumeister Steierische Klassik Sauvignon  Sold Out

The Neumeister family has a modern tasting room, so if you find yourself in their neighborhood, do stop by.
They own a small "inn" called Schlafgut Saziani

which is most comfortable.  It's reasonably-priced, too.
Their restaurant was closed when we visited, but it's apparently a well-regarded, somewhat fancy place which is frequently written up in the various gourmet guides.  
Here's the website:  http://www.neumeister.cc/en_index.asp

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