Spitting: Optional
Out of Step Sauvignon Blanc 2012
Vintage: 2012
Style: Lightly oaked, dry white
Country: Australia
Region: Yarra Valley, VIC
Overview Ask a wine wanker to try a Sauvignon Blanc and they will groan and writhe in disgust. Like children they will turn around from the proffered glass and screw their face up shouting, ‘No! Yucky!’ Ask a wine wanker to taste a barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc and they will clap their hands together with glee, more than happy to oblige. For a long time now, in Australia and Marlborough, Sauvignon Blanc has been made into a fresh simple style but as popularity in Sauv Blanc drops winemakers are forced to try something different, something to win the wine wankers back. This wine does just that, oak contact, wild yeast fermentation and partial malolactic fermentation makes this wine a cut above the one-dimensional Sauv Blancs that flood the market.
Sauvignon Blanc is the grape primarily used for the wines of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in France. Some but not all of the wines from these regions are fermented in oak. The wines from Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé are generally more complex and aromatic, something that winemakers in Australia are now trying to replicate.
Tasting note: Lifted aromatics of capsicum, cut grass and slight passionfruit initially on the nose but given time in the glass an elegant flintiness and toasty characters become more apparent. A lean, citrus driven palate with a nice, soft mouth-feel from that partial MLF and subtle tropical flavours of pineapple. A great acid structure leaves the wine lingering on the palate leaving it fresh and clean for the next sip.
Final Say: Wine wankers rejoice! Here is a great, complex and elegant Sauv Blanc that will complement food, not overpower it with pungent B.O. $20 a bottle.
Score: 17 out of 20
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