| Shane's Wine Opinion's |
| Do Sauvignon Blanc Wines Age Well? |
I love this wine varietal. I love it for being everything that a typical
New World Chardonnay is not. A great food pairing wine, a masterful
cooking wine, bright and tingly and very refreshing. Without question,
it is the only white wine, with the only exception being White Burgundy
(I know, I know, that’s a Chardonnay), that I will routinely buy on a
consistent basis. I especially love to try new ones from all over the
world, whether it be the $5.99 Santa Rita Sauvignon Blanc from Chile
or $70.00 Silex from Pouilly Fume in the Loire Valley of France. It
seems that just about every wine producing region and country makes
Sauvignon Blanc wines. There are quite literally hundreds of
thousands to choose from in the wine stores now.
Since there are so many, I often find myself relying on wine trade
magazines to point out interesting ones to try. If the Wine Spectator
hadn’t raved so glowingly over the Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc
from Stellenbosch, South Africa, I may have never thought to try it for
myself. It is after all a $20.00 plus bottle of white wine. Many of
these trade magazines, such as the aforementioned Wine Spectator
will list drink through dates at the end of their tasting notes, such as,
“Drink now through 2010”. Like a lot of people, I sometimes use this
as a guide, although I really should rely on my own instincts as to
when I need to pop the cork. Most of the Sauvignon Blanc wines that
you encounter in these magazines will have a tag after the tasting
notes that say, “Drink Now”. In other words, don’t waste any time
cellaring the wine, go ahead and drink it immediately.
Occasionally you will run across a few Sauvignon Blanc wines that are
so well made that these wine magazines feel inclined to give you a
drink thru date spanning over a few years. In the case of the
legendary Sauvignon Blanc producer from Pouilly Fume, Didier
Dageneau, his wines, such as Silex, often have a drink thru date
spanning seven years. That is practically unheard of for this wine
varietal. Well, my curiosity got the better of me and over the past few
years I have bought some of the most highly acclaimed Sauvignon
Blanc wines from all over the world with the intention of aging them
for a couple of years in my cellar. After all, the experts all agree that
these wines are age worthy, right?
The list of five included; the Silex from Loire Valley, arguably the
greatest Sauvignon Blanc wine in the world, Cloudy Bay, which is the
most prestigious of all the Sauvignon Blanc wines from New Zealand,
Mulderbosch, a wine that has been at the top of the heap in South
Africa for the past five vintages and counting, and two from California,
Robert Mondavi’s Fume Blanc, which is the wine credited with
launching the whole “Fume Blanc” marketing trend and a very highly
rated Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc. Fume Blanc by the way, denotes a
Sauvignon Blanc wine that has spent a little time in an oak barrel.
This is not the norm as most Sauvignon Blanc wines don’t even so
much as get within smelling distance of an oak barrel, let alone be
placed in one to age. But still, one of the side benefits of aging wines
in oak, other than imparting complex aromas and flavors is that it
gives a wine more tannic structure, allowing it to be better equipped to
age longer. The only other Sauvignon Blanc in my list of five that
sees the inside of a wine barrel is the Silex.
So now that I had acquired these five masterpieces in the world of
Sauvignon Blanc, I set out to put a little age on them in my cellar, just
like the experts suggested. First up was the Silex. It was the 1997
vintage, which was considered a pretty good vintage in Loire Valley of
France. The experts informed me that this wine would last seven
years, aging gracefully. So in the first part of 2003 I had prepared a
special wine dinner for some friends and one of the highlights of this
evening would be Didier Dageneau’s splendid masterpiece. I saw
Didier in an educational wine video series from Jancis Robinson and I
swear the guy looks exactly like Grizzly Adams. No kidding!
Anyway, we would be drinking it just six years after its vintage date
and a full one-year earlier than its expiration date. I was utterly
embarrassed when we uncorked it and poured the golden brown wine
into our glasses. It tasted like petrol and had lost whatever elements
it once had that made it so special. To tell you the truth, it smelled
like I was standing at the local Shell station filling my car up with gas.
I couldn’t even drink the rest of it in my glass and if you know me that
is really saying something.
I have done this same experiment with the other four wines, with only
two or three years of age and achieved similar results. The Robert
Mondavi, Ferrari Carano and the Mulderbosch are all wines I buy
frequently and I know exactly what they taste like when you drink
them young. Upon trying all three with a few years age on them,
pardon my French, but they sucked! In every case, I did not exceed
the age thru dates given by the wine experts and yet they were awful.
Everyone knows that many red wines age gracefully, obviously some
more than others, why even those White Burgundies seem to get
better with age. So what the heck is going on with these Sauvignon
Blanc wines?
It really comes down to just one key component that all Sauvignon
Blanc wines share, cheap or expensive and that component is acidity.
Lots and lots of acidity. It is this very characteristic that makes
Sauvignon Blanc wines so refreshing to drink and such a wonderful
wine to cook with and drink at the dinner table. Acidity is a
component in wine that tends to mellow out and fade over time and
that is exactly what is happening to these Sauvignon Blanc wines when
I try to age them. They lose their zing and zip and are no longer that
refreshing beverage I adore so much. Despite all the experts
pontification and cries of fowl play because I am disgracing a work of
art by simply not aging a wine such as the Silex from Didier
Dageneau, I bet if I had drank the wine when it first came out, it would
have been truly amazing, Maybe even mind numbing!
So this is not a plea to stop the madness or champion the cause, “Don’
t age your Sauvignon Blanc wines!”. No, no, experimentation is a
good thing and I encourage you to do so. However, I will offer you
some assistance here. Should you desire to buy one of these
expensive, but magnificent Sauvignon Blanc wines to age for yourself,
say perhaps three to five years, just hand me your money and I will
flush it down the toilet for you!
New World Chardonnay is not. A great food pairing wine, a masterful
cooking wine, bright and tingly and very refreshing. Without question,
it is the only white wine, with the only exception being White Burgundy
(I know, I know, that’s a Chardonnay), that I will routinely buy on a
consistent basis. I especially love to try new ones from all over the
world, whether it be the $5.99 Santa Rita Sauvignon Blanc from Chile
or $70.00 Silex from Pouilly Fume in the Loire Valley of France. It
seems that just about every wine producing region and country makes
Sauvignon Blanc wines. There are quite literally hundreds of
thousands to choose from in the wine stores now.
Since there are so many, I often find myself relying on wine trade
magazines to point out interesting ones to try. If the Wine Spectator
hadn’t raved so glowingly over the Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc
from Stellenbosch, South Africa, I may have never thought to try it for
myself. It is after all a $20.00 plus bottle of white wine. Many of
these trade magazines, such as the aforementioned Wine Spectator
will list drink through dates at the end of their tasting notes, such as,
“Drink now through 2010”. Like a lot of people, I sometimes use this
as a guide, although I really should rely on my own instincts as to
when I need to pop the cork. Most of the Sauvignon Blanc wines that
you encounter in these magazines will have a tag after the tasting
notes that say, “Drink Now”. In other words, don’t waste any time
cellaring the wine, go ahead and drink it immediately.
Occasionally you will run across a few Sauvignon Blanc wines that are
so well made that these wine magazines feel inclined to give you a
drink thru date spanning over a few years. In the case of the
legendary Sauvignon Blanc producer from Pouilly Fume, Didier
Dageneau, his wines, such as Silex, often have a drink thru date
spanning seven years. That is practically unheard of for this wine
varietal. Well, my curiosity got the better of me and over the past few
years I have bought some of the most highly acclaimed Sauvignon
Blanc wines from all over the world with the intention of aging them
for a couple of years in my cellar. After all, the experts all agree that
these wines are age worthy, right?
The list of five included; the Silex from Loire Valley, arguably the
greatest Sauvignon Blanc wine in the world, Cloudy Bay, which is the
most prestigious of all the Sauvignon Blanc wines from New Zealand,
Mulderbosch, a wine that has been at the top of the heap in South
Africa for the past five vintages and counting, and two from California,
Robert Mondavi’s Fume Blanc, which is the wine credited with
launching the whole “Fume Blanc” marketing trend and a very highly
rated Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc. Fume Blanc by the way, denotes a
Sauvignon Blanc wine that has spent a little time in an oak barrel.
This is not the norm as most Sauvignon Blanc wines don’t even so
much as get within smelling distance of an oak barrel, let alone be
placed in one to age. But still, one of the side benefits of aging wines
in oak, other than imparting complex aromas and flavors is that it
gives a wine more tannic structure, allowing it to be better equipped to
age longer. The only other Sauvignon Blanc in my list of five that
sees the inside of a wine barrel is the Silex.
So now that I had acquired these five masterpieces in the world of
Sauvignon Blanc, I set out to put a little age on them in my cellar, just
like the experts suggested. First up was the Silex. It was the 1997
vintage, which was considered a pretty good vintage in Loire Valley of
France. The experts informed me that this wine would last seven
years, aging gracefully. So in the first part of 2003 I had prepared a
special wine dinner for some friends and one of the highlights of this
evening would be Didier Dageneau’s splendid masterpiece. I saw
Didier in an educational wine video series from Jancis Robinson and I
swear the guy looks exactly like Grizzly Adams. No kidding!
Anyway, we would be drinking it just six years after its vintage date
and a full one-year earlier than its expiration date. I was utterly
embarrassed when we uncorked it and poured the golden brown wine
into our glasses. It tasted like petrol and had lost whatever elements
it once had that made it so special. To tell you the truth, it smelled
like I was standing at the local Shell station filling my car up with gas.
I couldn’t even drink the rest of it in my glass and if you know me that
is really saying something.
I have done this same experiment with the other four wines, with only
two or three years of age and achieved similar results. The Robert
Mondavi, Ferrari Carano and the Mulderbosch are all wines I buy
frequently and I know exactly what they taste like when you drink
them young. Upon trying all three with a few years age on them,
pardon my French, but they sucked! In every case, I did not exceed
the age thru dates given by the wine experts and yet they were awful.
Everyone knows that many red wines age gracefully, obviously some
more than others, why even those White Burgundies seem to get
better with age. So what the heck is going on with these Sauvignon
Blanc wines?
It really comes down to just one key component that all Sauvignon
Blanc wines share, cheap or expensive and that component is acidity.
Lots and lots of acidity. It is this very characteristic that makes
Sauvignon Blanc wines so refreshing to drink and such a wonderful
wine to cook with and drink at the dinner table. Acidity is a
component in wine that tends to mellow out and fade over time and
that is exactly what is happening to these Sauvignon Blanc wines when
I try to age them. They lose their zing and zip and are no longer that
refreshing beverage I adore so much. Despite all the experts
pontification and cries of fowl play because I am disgracing a work of
art by simply not aging a wine such as the Silex from Didier
Dageneau, I bet if I had drank the wine when it first came out, it would
have been truly amazing, Maybe even mind numbing!
So this is not a plea to stop the madness or champion the cause, “Don’
t age your Sauvignon Blanc wines!”. No, no, experimentation is a
good thing and I encourage you to do so. However, I will offer you
some assistance here. Should you desire to buy one of these
expensive, but magnificent Sauvignon Blanc wines to age for yourself,
say perhaps three to five years, just hand me your money and I will
flush it down the toilet for you!
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