Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a white wine grape from western France, now successfully grown in emerging and established wine regions all over the world. The variety produces lightly colored, aromatic dry white wines with fresh acidity. Synonyms: Fumé Blanc, Sauvignon Bianco, Muskat-Silvaner, Muskat-Sylvaner.

The key selling point of Sauvignon Blanc is its straightforwardness – the flavors are rarely hidden away in the background. Also, there is a particularly close correlation between the perceived flavors and their descriptors, making Sauvignon Blanc an ideal wine with which to begin wine-tasting lessons. Wines are generally quite clear and bright, although more aged examples may develop more of a golden hue.

Classic Sauvignon Blanc aromas range from grass, nettles and asparagus to green apples and gooseberries, and to more esoteric notes such as blackcurrant leaf and gunflint. The latter is a sign of a wine from Pouilly-Fumé. In New World regions and warmer climates, aromas can push into more tropical areas, and include grapefruit, mango and carambola (star fruit). Thiols (such as 4-methyl-4-mercaptopentan-2-one, or 4-MMP) and methoxpyrazines (associated with green, bell pepper notes) are generally credited with giving Sauvignon Blanc its somewhat unique green, grassy, aromas, especially in Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc produces wines with a light to medium body and high acid levels with moderate alcohol. It is generally held that producers wishing to increase complexity will need to do work in the vineyard to restrict yields and, alongside this, lees stirring (bâttonage) may give additional body to the wines. In more commercial, early-release examples, the high, lingering acidity is often counterbalanced by low to moderate levels of residual sugar.

## We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/F0jDcA_Ujcc?si=VMiE_df-7t4VzIlO - Sauvignon Blanc (Everything you need to know) - Wine Folly (5:04)
2. https://youtu.be/tHqxFMWKiF4?si=aptt_y2yPQXNLPkW - Wine Grapes 101: SAUVIGNON BLANC - No Sediment (4:43)
3. https://youtu.be/1iH_zN2s1D8?si=r5yIEhntAmJxTo0u - Everything You Need to Know About Sauvignon Blanc - Indulgence (3:27)

So, pick up a bottle and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!