The Things You Don’t Know About Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is one of the go-to grape varieties for white wine drinkers, suitable for most palates, and for any budget. Most Sauvignon Blanc wines are pretty affordable with most of your supermarkets offering a large variety for under £10. It’s usually the cheaper option on a wine menu, you know the one — where the judgemental sommelier raises an eyebrow when you nervously point to it and smile. However, ‘us’ wine snobs shouldn’t be too quick to snub this grape variety as the most expensive bottle in the world is Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc, and it’s yours for a mere £6,000 a bottle.

Sauvignon Blanc originates from Western France in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux wine regions. It is the 8th most planted grape globally and first appeared in the 16th century under the name ‘Surin’.

It is an aromatic grape with green fruit & vegetable aromas and pale lemon colour. Its high acidity, medium body and dryness pairs well with simple, fresh cuisine and fruity desserts. One of Sauvignon Blanc’s dominant compounds is methoxypyrazines which give the wine a herbaceous nature with green bell pepper, asparagus and gooseberry characteristics. This complexity is developed through cool growing climates. Most Sauvignon Blanc wines are produced using reductive (no oxygen) stainless steel winemaking techniques. However, this versatile…