Wine & Spirits - June 2012 - (Page 52)

YEAR’S BEST SAUVIGNON BLANC Our blind panels tasted 235 new-release American sauvignon blanc wines over the past 12 months. Our critics rated 18 as exceptional (90+) and 4 as Best Buys. Joshua Greene reviews California; Patrick J. Comiskey reviews New York and Washington. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com. C ALI FO RN I A 413564 | Frog’s Leap later, was I simply responding to pattern recognition in the ﬂavor of the wine? If so, I would argue that should strengthen the score: That among ten other Napa Valley sauvignons, the distinctive pungency and ﬂavor depth, the earthy passion fruit and lime tasted like Dollarhide. The fruit is pure and ripe, fattened by a small portion barrel fermented in new French oak (17 percent). It tastes clean, crisp and clear, while it’s rich enough for grilled quail. (1,269 cases) St. Supéry Vineyards & Winery, Rutherford, CA 417056 into the ﬁnish. It has a ﬂoral note of wildﬂower honey that recalls the sunniness of Napa Valley. Clean and refreshing. Cakebread Cellars, Rutherford, CA 414466 | Brander $ $ | Gamble Family $ 2010 Santa Ynez Valley Mesa Verde Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc A clean, fresh contrast of pineapple and kelp, this has a green edge to the fruit and mouthwatering ﬂavors that last. It will match Cantonese jellyﬁsh or any grilled ﬁsh. (W&S, 2/12; 560 cases) The Brander Vineyard, Los Olivos, CA 414775 2010 Rutherford Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc John Williams makes this wine from ﬁve vineyards near Galleron Lane in Rutherford, all of them dry farmed. He left the grapes on the vine longer than usual due to high acidity levels in 2010, but managed to pick before the heat wave struck Napa Valley, producing a complex wine that balances fatness and freshness. It layers herbal scents with ripe fruit notes of melon, pineapple and cherimoya, cleaned up in the ﬁnish by a pink grapefruit acidity. The ﬂavors are saturated and sophisticated, a rich white to pour with Thai chicken sausages oﬀ the grill. (W&S, 10/11) Frog’s Leap, Rutherford, CA 2009 Yountville Napa Valley Heart Block Sauvignon Blanc This grows at a 12-acre estate vineyard between the Napa River and Conn Creek, planted to the musque clone from the Loire and the Preston selection, originally from Bordeaux. Jim Close barrel ferments it without added yeast, then ages it in barrel, sur lie, for more than a year. While the oak is immediately apparent, the wine quickly takes charge with layers of ﬂavor that subsume the wood into a structural element, enhancing the richness of the wine, cushioning the scents of violets and earth, creating a satisfying creaminess to match the cool, clean line of peach-scented fruit in the ﬁnish. This is ﬁrm enough to match roast veal or to take the place of a Greek white with lamb in avgolemono sauce. (150 cases) Gamble Family Vineyards, Calistoga, CA | Heritance $ 2010 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc Bernard Portet blends some semillon into this sauvignon, the combination luscious and rich without feeling heavy. There’s a cool spring water freshness to the ﬁnish, cleaning up after the heady passionfruit ﬂavors. For seared scallops. (W&S, 2/12; 2,000 cases) Heritance Wines, Saint Helena, CA 416954 | Arkenstone $ 417176 | St. Supéry $ 2010 Napa Valley Dollarhide Sauvignon Blanc I had recently visited this former cattle ranch east of Howell Mountain, a property once owned by Andrew Jackson Dollarhide; had walked through parcel 5, the sauvignon vines planted in deep, loamy soils in 1985 that provide the fruit for this wine; and drank it with lunch under a centuries old live oak by a pond in this little valley within Napa Valley. So when I tasted it again, blind, a week 52 W I N E & S P I R I T S J U N E 2 0 1 2 417355 | Cakebread $ 2009 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc Oﬀering red wine power in a luscious white, this focuses on soil-inﬂected ﬂavors, a gravelly weight and gravity over nectarine richness. It’s smoothed by a vanilla custard note from aging on its lees in both French oak and concrete. A tense and powerful wine needing bottle age to mellow and grow more expressive. (220 cases) Arkenstone Vineyard, Angwin, CA 416970 2010 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc A tight, citrusy sauvignon, this opens to tart yellow cherry ﬂavors as the fruit lengthens http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com https://store.frogsleap.com/flash/SHOP.AMS?LEVEL=BOT&PART=FLSB11 http://www.arkenstone.com/shop/item.jsp?itemid=527&catid=37 https://shop.stsupery.com/SHOP.AMS?LEVEL=BOT&PART=SB10DH7&DESC=ST%20SUPERY%202010%20DOLLARHIDE%20SAUVIGNON%20BLANC https://shop.cakebread.com/SHOP.AMS?LEVEL=BOT&PART=1SB0710&DESC=2010%20Sauvignon%20Blanc,%20Napa%20Valley

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - June 2012

Wine & Spirits - June 2012
Editor’s Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered: Bordeaux 2011, Diamond Jubilee Port, News in Brief
Jamon + Jerez
Spirits: Agave Distilled, by Lou Bustamante
Tequila Comes to Dinner
Sauvignon from the Heights
Geology Jazz
Value Brands of the Year
Tastings Overview
Top 100 Values
Sauvignon Blanc
Southern Italy
Ribera del Duero
American Wines
Imported Wines
Books: Summer Reading

Wine & Spirits - June 2012