pop & pour

[These bottles were provided as samples for review purposes.]

Two enter, one leaves. Well, actually zero leave; there were no leftovers.

I need very little reason to open and taste two bottles side by side, especially when their comparison can tell me even more about them and where they’re from.  Somebody decided that Friday, May 6th would be known as Sauv Blanc Day (or #SauvBlanc Day, to be more accurate, even though it makes no sense to put a space in a hashtag), although this is a fact not without controversy, as others seem to have settled on April 24th for International Sauvignon Blanc celebration.  We can all agree that some time within this two-week window would be a great opportunity to open some Sauv Blanc, and with the playoffs upon us in two of the four major professional sports leagues, my dining table was also primed for a showdown of some sort.  Enter the titans.

These two bottles are excellent references for each other, as both are from the same vintage (2014, a shorter growing season with a wet harvest), the same country (New Zealand), the same region (Marlborough, the kickstarter of the NZ wine industry and of global New Era Sauv Blanc) and the same grape (the aforementioned SB).  Flavour and textural differences thus largely stem from slight climatic and geographic alterations at the vineyard level and minor distinctions in winemaking choices by the producers, as well as whatever cosmic forces make good wines end up just so.  Going in, I have to admit I was leaning toward the 2014 Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc as the likely favourite; this winery, run by former Cloudy Bay winemaker Kevin Judd (who literally put New Zealand on the world wine map with a now-ubiquitous tropical/herbaceous style of Sauv Blanc), now turns out deeply personal, characterful expressions of the grape year after year.  They are no stranger to love from this blog.  But strange things can happen in the playoffs.  Onward. Read the rest of this entry »