Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is one of the most recognizable grapes for its distinctive aromatics: those compounds called pyrazines that give notes of green pepper, asparagus, and tomato leaf. It's a vigorous grape with early ripening that expresses itself in two very different profiles depending on harvest timing: early harvest gives the vegetal/herbal side, late harvest turns tropical (passion fruit, grapefruit). Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in the Loire are the stylistic cradles: mineral wines, tense, with that famous note of 'flint stone'. Marlborough in New Zealand took the grape to the world with an extremely aromatic and tropical style. In Bordeaux it's blended with Sémillon for great dry whites (Pessac-Léognan) and botrytized sweet wines from Sauternes. In Argentina it performs very well in high, cool zones — northern Mendoza, Chapadmalal (Atlantic Coast), and Patagonia are producing very interesting examples. It's a grape Argentine consumers are still discovering.