{"id":223,"date":"2012-11-16T17:58:28","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T17:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/?p=223"},"modified":"2013-12-02T14:10:19","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T22:10:19","slug":"the-sauvignon-blanc-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/general\/the-sauvignon-blanc-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sauvignon Blanc Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sauvignon Blancs – there aren\u2019t many more polarizing wines widely available right now.\u00a0 People seem to love them or hate them.\u00a0 Generally, Karen and I fall strongly in the \u201chate\u201d camp.\u00a0 Is hate, too strong a word?\u00a0 Naw\u2026if anything, it\u2019s not strong enough.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like them\u2026I mean we really don\u2019t like them. Ironic that it\u2019s one of my mom\u2019s favorite wines so if my parents come over for dinner, they bring one and invariably leave part of a bottle in our fridge. Usually free wine is a good thing but to us, Sauvignon Blanc is just a colossal waste of space.<\/p>\n

I usually don\u2019t even want to cook with it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had them from California, New Zealand, Australia; it doesn\u2019t matter, we just don\u2019t like them.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been told the Australians even describe New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, usually thought of as the best in the world, as \u201cCat pee on a gooseberry bush\u201d.\u00a0 Doesn’t that sound appealing?\u00a0 As far as I\u2019m concerned its one redeeming characteristic is that it’s a parent of Cabernet Sauvignon \u2013 a bad parent who happened to have a good kid.<\/p>\n

Sauvignon Blancs are often described as vegetative or grassy unless perfectly made (apparently something that happens far too infrequently).\u00a0 If I want something that tastes like grass, I\u2019ll drink bad iced tea.\u00a0 Why the hell would any one want to drink something like that when even the old stand bys, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio (or Gris if you prefer) are more appealing?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately\u2026now that I\u2019ve really warmed up, I have to temper the rant slightly.\u00a0 As of November 10th, 2012, a date that will surely live in infamy, we found a Sauvignon Blanc that we actually liked.\u00a0 It was a cloudy, drizzly, ugly day (totally appropriate for such a somber event) and we were wine tasting at the Madera County Winery, Westbrook Wine Farm.\u00a0 We dutifully tried the proffered Sauvignon Blanc, much the way a five year old would enjoy taking medicine.\u00a0 This is really hard to say for some one whom has been so about vocal Sauvignon Blanc having no redeeming qualities.\u00a0 OK, it was good, really good in fact.\u00a0 We actually bought one.\u00a0 After talking to the winemaker Ray, we decided that perhaps the grape could make a good wine if all the conditions were perfect.\u00a0 Based on the samples we\u2019ve had however, that only seems to happen far too infrequently.\u00a0 So now we had to redo the entire rant blog post (thanks a million Ray\u2026it\u2019s not like we had anything better to do).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Westbrook Wine Farm shocked us by producing a Sauvignon Blanc that we liked!<\/p><\/div>\n

Apparently Sauvignon Blanc can be worthwhile if made perfectly.\u00a0 Equally apparent however, there are not enough vineyard managers that produce\u00a0sufficient\u00a0quality fruit and minority of winemakers who have an idea what to do with it, even if it is a good fruit.\u00a0 With that in mind,\u00a0we’ve\u00a0changed our rant to\u00a0hopefully\u00a0provide some advice for those who feel obligated to try what they really shouldn’t.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If you sound like a moose in heat when trying to sing, don\u2019t do Karaoke.
\n2)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If you dance like some who is having a seizure, don\u2019t try (I can relate to this one by the way).
\n3)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If you burn water when trying to cook, just order takeout.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try to become an Iron Chef.
\n4)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0If you can\u2019t make a good Sauvignon Blanc, don\u2019t try.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t.\u00a0 Walk away from the grapes, pour yourself a glass of Cabernet or Pinot and let the fit pass.\u00a0 That should eliminate about 98% of them.<\/p>\n

Wow..It feels good to have that out of my system! \u00a0If you are looking for\u00a0something\u00a0a little different, Try one of these\u00a0alternatives that are just waiting for their day in the sun (so to speak).<\/p>\n

Alternatives\u00a0to the dreaded Sauvignon Blanc<\/span>
\nAlbarino from Spain is refreshing, a little spicy and thankfully doesn\u2019t taste like some one’s lawn mower bag.\u00a0 With the Spanish economy in shambles, predictions are that this wine will significantly drop in price next year.\u00a0 There are a few produced in the US as well.\u00a0 Cru Wine Company in Madera County makes one.<\/p>\n

Old world style Riesling\u2019s are considered the king of whites by most Sommeliers but get precious little play here because our history of making them is spotty at best (actually, with a few exceptions, horrific is a more apt description).\u00a0 Give one of the European ones a try and if you like it, try to find a dry Riesling in your area (Westbrook Wine Farm, mentioned earlier in this post, does make a good one by the way).<\/p>\n

Fiano from Southern Italy is a little sweet but with just enough acid to not come across as overly sweet.\u00a0 It\u2019s another interesting wine that would do well in California\u2019s warm climate and is worth a shot if you\u2019ve never had one.\u00a0 The Santa Clara County Winery, Solis is one of the few that makes Fiano.<\/p>\n

Roussanne, one of the Rhone\u2019s best white grapes is quite interesting but at least there\u2019s a reason why it\u2019s not as prevalent.\u00a0 It\u2019s tough to grow and make any money with it.\u00a0 No one grows Roussanne to get rich.<\/p>\n

Even Viognier has some appealing complexity assuming the wine maker hasn\u2019t made it to hit you in the head with that floral aroma.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/p>\n

Of course, usually despising the Sauvignon Blanc as we do, we tend to avoid it the way we would try and avoid a root canal (in all likelihood, the root canal would be less painful though).\u00a0 We\u2019re not exposed to it other than when we visit a winery and they are pouring one.\u00a0 We\u2019ll dutifully try it and every once in a while; we\u2019ll stumble on one that actually isn\u2019t bad.\u00a0 Could we learn to like it?\u00a0 The jury is still out and we\u2019re willing to try but\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sauvignon Blancs – there aren\u2019t many more polarizing wines widely available right now.\u00a0 People seem to love them or hate them.\u00a0 Generally, Karen and I fall strongly in the \u201chate\u201d camp.\u00a0 Is hate, too strong a word?\u00a0 Naw\u2026if anything, it\u2019s not strong enough.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like them\u2026I mean we really don\u2019t like them. Ironic that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[75,74,73,77,76,72,78],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-albarino","tag-fiano","tag-madera-winery","tag-riesling","tag-roussanne","tag-sauvignon-blanc","tag-viognier"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3rltY-3B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winery-sage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}