Tag Archives: New Zealand White Wine

International Sauvignon Blanc Day Game Changer: Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc

He told me it would change my life. And that sounded good. To celebrate International Sauvignon Blanc Day I was looking for something crisp, expressive and a little different from the Sauvs I’d enjoyed in the past.

When I first walked into Royal Park Fine Wines in Strongsville, Sommelier George Zaboura listened carefully to the basic flavor profile I was looking for, then immediately took me over to the 2018 Whitehaven from Marlborough, NZ. “It will change your life.”, he said. And hey, if my life can be changed for under $20, I’m in!

The general profile of Sauvignon Blanc is dominated by a fruity, fresh quality with aromas of green fruit, and vegetables like green bell pepper and asparagus. The classic New Zealand Sauv style is dry, high acid, no oak, and zesty flavors of passion fruit, gooseberry, green pepper, and black currant leaf. The herbaceous qualities can be a deal breaker for some who prefer their white wines to be a festival of fruit. Yet the green features can make these wines that much more interesting to drink, and to pair with food.

This wine was incredible! Zesty essences of grapefruit and passion fruit wafted up from the first pour into the glass. Its high acidity was crisp and refreshing and made it bouncy on the tongue. Flavors of tangy white peach, black currant, and the gentle kick of green pepper made this delightful. It was a great expression of the style.

Most Sauvs are best enjoyed young, although this can be cellared for three to five years to bring out more of the asparagus quality of gently aged Sauvs.

Suggested pairings:

  • Summer salads
  • Chicken
  • Lobster
  • White fish

At a price point of $17.99, this Sauvignon Blanc did change my life in a big way. This is now my go-to white wine for the Summer of ’19.

George was right!

Cheers!

©️Copyright TheWineStudent, 2019

Cool It!

The dog days of summer are upon us. At first, I thought it might be just a hot flash but my little weather station guy was reading 112F. In weather this hot, I always seem to have trouble keeping my wine cool. Putting ice cubes in the glass is sooo not done, yet there are several ways to accomplish this: the ice bath, which will  keep temperature relatively cool but can leave you with a drippy wine bottle and sometimes the wine ends up too cold to experience the delicate bouquet and flavours. I have Whiskey Stones that are both beautiful and supercool. In theory, they’d work well; you freeze them, put them in your glass to keep the wine a constant temp without melting but I found them to be to be a bit clunky. Though, for the sake of experimentation I tried them, and almost cracked a front tooth when one slid too quickly toward the rim of the glass. Drag!

The Corksicle is another innovation that keeps your wine cool from the inside rather than external chilling. It says it will keep chilled whites perfectly chilled and will cool room temperature reds. First you freeze the Corksicle unit, then pour out a little of the wine from the bottle to make room. You then insert the Corksicle and leave it for the 15 minute rule. You wouldn’t want to use this to chill a bottle of white from room temperature. For reds, you’d use it to slightly cool a lighter red; one that’s best served at a lightly chilled temperature, such as Beaujolais.

So I took the wine, an ’11 Greenlip Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and with the Corksicle in place, made my way out to my patio lab. I thought this would be more of a test to how the Corksicle would really stand up. It was also a test of how well I could stand up to the heat.

I started the experiment at 5:01pm. The package says that it will keep wine at the proper cool temperature for 45 minutes. To get an idea of just how hot it was, I brought out some of the frozen whiskey stones to see how long they’d stay cold in the heat. The temperature was holding steady at 95F.  By 10 minutes, the whiskey stones had completely thawed and actually began to heat up. Hmmmm, interesting.

At 30 minutes, I was getting skeptical; had the Corksicle met its match in this Cleveland heat? I poured the lovely nectar into my glass, and as per their instructions, kept the Corksicle part way in the bottle as I poured and … it wasn’t ice cold ~ which isn’t necessarily bad. It was chilled, and I was able to taste more of the flavours of the wine. When wine is too cold, it can lose its subtlety and nuance. This was still quite drinkable and cool enough.

So how did it measure up?  The Corksicle kept its promise of keeping the wine chilled, without dilution, and in a high outdoor temperature. Perhaps a better test might be  the Corksicle vs. wrap-around wine coolers.

But I’d better make it soon. Last week, it seemed as though  Old Man Winter played spin the Corksicle and landed on the Cleve.

Cheers!

©TheWineStudent, 2013