The Sudden Popularity of Sauvignon Blanc
The 2003 Killerby Sauvignon Blanc has just been
selected in Winestate magazine’s annual “Best of 2004.” The
magazine tastes over 10,000 wines from Australia and New Zealand to
come up with the annual list. There were only six sauvignon blancs
selected: three from Australia, three from New Zealand. The
Killerby was the only West Australian wine in the line up. So what
is it with the sudden popularity of sauvignon blanc?
“The drinking globe has gone crazy for
sauvignon blanc.” So says wine critic Jeremy Oliver in the
latest Qantas in-flight magazine. Jeremy comments on the origin of
Sauvignon Blanc:
“Thought to have originated in Bordeaux,
sauvignon blanc in more closely associated with the wines from
Sancerre and Pouilly on the banks of the Loire. Here wines
deliver intense berry and tropical fruit flavours along with a
typically long, slightly herbal and racy palate of dryness and
minerality. They might also reveal a gunflint-like smokiness that
is believed to be behind the name Pouilly-Fume.”
Sauvignon blanc originally came to the
attention of Australian drinkers in the mid-eighties with the wines
from New Zealand. I remember when Cloudy Bay first hit the shores
of Australia. My father, Dr Barry Killerby said, “It’s a lovely
wine, but why did they call it “Cloudy” Bay? I mean, people will
think there is a winemaking fault and the wine is cloudy.”
Well, history records that people thought no
such thing and that Cloudy Bay pioneered a new style of wine that
really took off with the Australian public. In those days, the New
Zealand wine was intensely herbal and often tended to be asparagus
like in aromas and flavours – indicating early picking or cold
climates. Since then, the New Zealand wines have been manipulated
to give more of the passionfruit and gooseberry like flavours and
aromas that are consistent with mid-level ripeness or slightly later
picking. The greenish element seems to have largely disappeared in
the modern wines.
Jeremy Oliver comments that:
“While Marlborough remains the focal point
for New Zealand sauvignon blanc, terrific examples can be found
from regions such as Martingborough, Hawke’s Bay, Central otago
and Waipara, north of Canterbury.”
In relation to Australian sauvignon blancs, he
says:
“In Australia, Margaret River, the Yarra Valley, the Macedon
Ranges, Tumbarumba and Orange can produce fine sauvignon blanc,
but the Adelaide Hills is widely recognized as the finest and most
consistent region for this grape.”
Well, being Margaret River producers ourselves
we acknowledge the pre-eminence of the Adelaide Hills (after all,
they would acknowledge Margaret River’s pre-eminence in Chardonnay
and Cabernet Sauvignon), but we still think that some great
Sauvignon Blancs are going to come out of Margaret River.
In our view, however, we can’t simply rely on
the climate and the soil to do all the work as they can in New
Zealand. We believe that to get the edge in the production of
premium sauvignon blanc in this area, more winemaking input is
needed.
Simply put, New Zealand can rely on the
vineyards to produce a fine unwooded sauvignon blanc year after
year. In Margaret River, however, we believe that a wooded style of
Sauvignon Blanc is the way to achieve a certain sort of
pre-eminence. That is why the Killerby sauvignon blanc is barrel
fermented in the finest new French oak, and then a considerable
portion of it is aged in new and one-year-old French oak for five
months.
The barrel fermentation and oak ageing gives an
added dimension to the wine which sets it apart from the other
unwooded sauvignon blancs in the market place.
For if anything, as Oliver notes:
“Australian saugvignon blancs tend to be
rounder, riper and juicier that their Kiwi counterparts, but as a
group lack their length of flavour, minerality and definition….
We have learned not to take sauvignon blanc too seriously. It
should be delicious, clean and flavoursome, unlike a top-class
barrel-fermented chardonnay or bottle-aged riesling, with their
layers of depth and complexity.”
In our view, if an unwooded Margaret River
sauvignon blanc is going to lack length of flavour, minerality and
definition, then we should take it seriously and make it in
the same way that we would make a “top-class barrel-fermented
chardonnay.” At Killerby, we believe that sauvignon blanc can be
made in a serious style, rather than simply bottling an unwooded
wine and relying on the vineyard to do all the work.
Only a small percentage of the sauvignon blancs available in the
market place are barrel-fermented and aged in oak, but this small
percentage is where we would like to place the Killerby Sauvignon
Blanc. Time will tell whether this style can achieve the
pre-eminence we seek for the wine!
Ben Killerby
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