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Sauvignon Blanc

Grape
White: Sauvignon Blanc's original home in France is the Loire Valley, particularly to the East of the Loire around Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where deep chalky soils allow it to retain freshness. A versatile grape mostly used on its own but sometimes blended, in France (Bordeaux) it is traditionally blended with the Sémillon grape for both dry whites and sweet (Sauterness). The Sauvignon grape produces different styles of wine according to the climate in which it is grown. Traditionally fermeted slowly in oak nowadays the majority is fremented in stainless steel Cool Climates but poor soils: Wines tend to have the 'classic' green herbaceous flavours such as gooseberry, green pepper, grass, passion fruit or elderflower.
Warmer Climates: If grown in too warm a climate the Sauvignon Blanc grape tends to loose its characteristic aromatic quality and level of acidity and often only a hint of peach flavour is found. Oak is sometimes used to give the wine more body, this can be found in the United States, and the wine is frequently labelled as Fumé Blanc.
Classic Sauvignon Blanc growing Countries are:
France: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Sancerre display typical herbacious characteristics, whereas wines from Pouilly-Fumé have a less herbacious quality and more of a fllinty minerality. New Zealand: Malborough, on the Southern Island of New Zealand, is widely recognised as a world benchmark for the Sauvignon Blanc grape. Malborough Sauvignon Blanc produces wines of the distinctly herbaceous aromas of capsicum, passionfruit, gooseberry and grass, with the most famous of them all being Cloudy Bay.
Chile:Casblanca in Chile produces Sauvignon Blanc that displays goosberry and grass but also wines that have tropical flavours of pineapple and mango. South Africa: Produces a range of styles, some are very light and crisp with herbaceous flavours whilst others are oaked and develop a nutty, vegetal character.
United States: California is too warm to make Sauvignon Blanc in the same New World style of New Zealand. The wines produced therefore, are fermented and/or aged in oak. This results in full-bodied and spicy wines with only the subtlest hint of traditional flavours such as green pepper, normally labelled Fume Blanc.