I realise that it's all very well to say so after the fact, but I had been planning to pen a lengthy article about the state of Sauvignon Blanc in Nu Zild. It's a subject much on my mind what with it being our wine-y calling card to the rest of the world and yet holding on to the lower ranks of the ladder in most wine-makers estimation.
It also suffers being dismissed as simple stuff, not worthy of debate in the same fashion as Chardonnay or Pinot Noir and there's definitely a dichotemy in there waiting to be expounded and also there's much to love in Sauvignon Blanc despite its perceived failings.....
And it's all very well my starting out like this but the wine writer in the Viva has beaten me to most of these points in National print. I imagine there's no harm in singing the same tune but it's not as much fun as whistling your own melody. But there we go. Perhaps it's a subject deserving of a whistle anyhow.
In this vein the wine on offer was the Astrolabe Sauvignon Blanc 2007, new to the wine list and so ripe for the tasting. It seems for some reason to be the de rigueur Savvy to pop on to the list and well known to Aucklanders of a certain socio-economic type.
My first impressions are not particularly of startling aromatics although my colleagues are exclaiming over the distinctive nose. It has a leafy, lime pith aroma but it is the palate the is most distinguished element. Grainy and long. Much like a peach skin or the tart shock of biting into a new-season yellow nectarine with all the fleshy, full bodied flavour to follow. This is interwoven with a thread of nutty complexity like sucking the flesh off the stone at the end. The wine ends long, full and fresh.
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