2013 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand ($25)
I normally try to bring you more “hidden” wines in this slot, wines you likely haven’t heard much about…but the new release of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc that I tasted this week knocked me out! First of all, for those of you who do not know New Zealand…the Cloudy Bay winery was the country’s first great breakout star, internationally; in the 1980s, before we even heard of it in America, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc was on waiting lists at wine shops in London. It was the dawn of a new era; within a few years, everyone was clamoring for this new creature, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Cloudy Bay or not. People wanted it because the wine was generally bigger and fruitier than Sancerre, and in many cases even more intensely varietal. If Sancerre was “grassy,” this Marlborough stuff was often like “canned asparagus!” At some point, wineries like Cloudy Bay began to back away from the extreme herbaceousness; my sense of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from roughly 1990 to 2010 was that it was getting less herbaceous, riper, fruitier, less dry, more New World-like. And that is why this 2013 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc brought me back into the fold. It struck my palate as the crispest, driest, leanest and most tingly CBSB I’ve had in years. I loved the aromas and flavors, too: not exactly herbaceous, but decidedly citric (with grapefruit leading the way), and a lot of lime leaves. Not to mention a touch of a note that smells much better than it sounds: sweat-drenched gym-locker tee shirt! Try it for your next Sauvignon Blanc need!
Wine4Food
It is exquisite with food; it’s not lean enough to be oyster wine, but it’ll go damned well with clams on the half shell, cooked and chilled shellfish, picnic items, plus all kinds of Indian-Thai-Chinese main courses that aren’t sweet. Additionally…it’s a helluva of a goat cheese wine!
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