Wine & Spirits - June 2017 - 64

YEAR'S BEST NEW WORLD SAUVIGNON BLANC
its bright passion fruit and herb flavors. For
squid salad. (W&S 10/16)
447488

89 | Vina Robles

$16

2015 Paso Robles Estate Sauvignon Blanc
(Best Buy) ^ Rich, smoky and almost waxy,
this comes from a vineyard in the rolling
hills just north of the town of Paso Robles.
It's picked quite ripe, but there's a friskiness
to the acidity and a mineral spice that lasts
along with the alcohol warmth. For braised
chicken thighs. (2,219 cases)
449108

88 | Charles Krug

$18

2016 St. Helena Napa Valley Sauvignon
Blanc (Best Buy) ^ This wine's sulfur blows
off with air, revealing a gentle, sappy, maplescented white. Some apple notes to the fruit
make it a balanced aperitif.
449100

88 | Hunt & Harvest

$15

2015 Livermore Valley San Francisco Bay
Louis Mel Sauvignon Blanc (Best Buy) ^
Named after the Frenchman who brought
sauvignon blanc cuttings from d'Yquem to
the Livermore Valley in the late 1800s, this
balances plump, ripe fruit with a capsicumgreen streak that mirrors its salty acidity. For
pan-fried sand dabs. (1,800 cases)
447664

87 | Ferrari-Carano

$14

2015 Sonoma County Fumé Blanc (Best
Buy) ^ A creamy sauvignon with bold greenolive and passion-fruit aromas, this contrasts
its sweet fruit richness with a pleasant lemonpith bitterness. For grilled fish.

449303

87 | Line 39

$11

2015 California Sauvignon Blanc (Best
Buy) ^ This is pleasantly lush in the middle,

WINE & SPIRITS

87 | Layer Cake

$13

86 | Brander

$16

2015 California Sauvignon Blanc (Best
Buy) ^ Peachy and broad, this ripe California
sauvignon blanc will firm up with a chill in an
ice bucket. Its creamy, sunny, abundant fruit
will fit with a fried chicken sandwich.
449143
2016 Los Olivos District Sauvignon Blanc
(Best Buy) ^ A bristly, tart sauvignon blanc
with pungent kiwi and green peppercorn flavors, this is an edgy white for briny seafood
like steamed mussels or raw oysters.

A RGENTINA

$18

2016 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc (Best
Buy) ^ Virtually clear in color, this wine needs
a splash in a decanter to smooth its sharp
angles and bring up the cool, Mandarin
orange flavors. It takes on a simple, creamy
texture to match a crab salad. (2,975 cases)
449106

88 | Wente

frisky in the end, lasting on fresh, clean varietal flavors of jalapeño and grapefruit.
448395

JUNE 2017

120098

91 | Trapiche

$20

2016 Chapadmalal Costa & Pampa Sauvignon Blanc ^ The fresh Atlantic breezes
in Chapadmalal allow Trapiche to deliver a
sauvignon with a fresh, enchanting juiciness.
This comes from vines planted in 2008, just
two miles off the coast, their fruit sustaining
a bright, radiant acidity and luminous flavors of citrus, herbs and spices. It's refreshing, with enough grip for sardines escabeche. §
Universal Wine Network, Livermore, CA

CHIL E
120196

95 | Casa Marin

$27

2015 Lo Abarca Cipreses Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ^ María Luz Marín and her son
Felipe specialize in sauvignon blanc at their
family estate in the remote coastal village
of Lo Abarca. Cipreses is a steep hillside of
granite and limestone facing directly west,
exposed to the winds off the Pacific less than
three miles away. The wine is infused with
oceanic flavors, the saltiness of the air and
the spiky green-herb scents of the surrounding coastal scrub. But mostly, there's fruit:
bold tropical lime and cherimoya layered
in ripeness and textural complexity. Pour it
with roasted razor clams, or bring a bottle to
the beach, for lobsters roasted with corn and
potatoes in a sand pit this summer. § Domaine
Select Wine Estates, NY
120061

95 | Concha y Toro

$26

93 | Undurraga

$22

93 | Undurraga

$25

92 | Errazuriz

$23

2016 Casablanca Valley Terrunyo Block 5
Los Boldos Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc ^ UC
Davis Clone 1 was the first clone of sauvignon
blanc that came to Chile in the early 1990s.
Widely planted in Casablanca, it typically
offers wines with great body and tense acidity, especially when coming from the cooler
areas of the valley. Planted close to the Pacific
at Las Dichas, it allows winemaker Ignacio
Recabarren to craft a white defined by electric tension, along with mineral and citrus
notes. In a cool harvest like 2016, this offers
tart white fruit and a deliciously spicy note
towards the end. A classic. § Excelsior Wine &
Spirits, Old Brookville, NY
120203
2015 Leyda T.H. [Terroir Hunter] Sauvignon Blanc ^ Rafael Urrejola works with a
parcel at the Lomas de Leyda estate, where
sauvignon blanc grows on a thin layer of clay
over chalk. He ages a portion of the wine in
older oak barrels, adding richness to the texture without diminishing the bold flavors
of pineapple, lemon and green fig. A little
reduced for now, with a touch of sweatiness
in the green scallion edge, this is luscious and
delicious, especially if decanted for a rich seafood stew. § Maritime Wine Trading Collective,
San Francisco, CA
120244
2016 Leyda Valley Gran Reserva Sibaris
Sauvignon Blanc ^ Pilar Díaz selects the fruit
for this wine from the Lomas de Leyda estate,
on Chile's far coast. It's a clean, stainless
steel-fermented style that gets its richness
from the fruit-plump, juicy passion-fruit
flavors-with a grassy cut and some mineral
bitterness. The clean lines and salty flavors
place it with any roast shellfish. § Maritime
Wine Trading Collective, San Francisco, CA
120186
2016 Aconcagua Costa Aconcagua Costa
Sauvignon Blanc ^ A relatively new viticultural zone, Aconcagua Costa was first planted
in 2005 and has since given refreshing sauvignons, delivering a totally new dimension
to the Aconcagua valley, normally associated
with warm reds grown further inland. Here
you can taste the cold Pacific breezes in the
lime, mineral and herbal aromas. The citrus
and salt flavors follow an arrow of acidity,
needing nothing more than an oyster with a
drop of lemon. § Vintus, Pleasantville, NY

http://www.thewinegroup.com/trapiche/ http://www.line39wines.com/wines/sauvignon-blanc/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - June 2017