Point Blanc

Wine lovers, like opera fans, rarely change their minds. When was the last time you met an opera lover who reversed his or her opinion about, say, Wagner?Wine lovers are little better. Yes, it true that occasionally a Burgundy lover might evolve (or devolve) into a Bordeaux fancier, in the same way that liberals drift across the line into conservatism. But such deviations are seen as just that.I confess that, in the last 30 years, I have only had occasion once to change my mind about a category of wine. I used to loathe sauvignon blanc. Today I love it.What changed? Me, mostly. Where I previously found the herbaceous element of sauvignon blanc off-putting, I now find it invigorating. Sauvignon blanc, like cilantro, is something of an acquired taste. I was slower coming around to it than others.I’d like to add, in self-defense, that sauvignon blanc itself has changed in the past few decades as well. Not as much as I have, granted, but perhaps it’s moved off the taste mark enough to have made just enough difference. Today’s sauvignon blancs are better made, and more diverse, than they used to be. I think that even longtime sauvignon blanc fans would agree with that.What is incontestable is that we now have far more sauvignon blancs than ever before. Whole new sauvignon blanc empires have emerged, such as New Zealand or Friuli in northeastern Italy.California, for its part, has become not just a world of sauvignon blanc but a planetary system with different styles and tastes of sauvignon blanc orbiting around cooler or warmer microclimates. A sauvignon blanc from Napa Valley, where warmth delivers delicious fig and melon scents, is an utterly different experience than one from Santa Barbara County, where coolness allows more sharply etched citrus and tropical fruit notes.Even a traditional stronghold of sauvignon blanc, such as France’s Loire Valley, has seen changes for the better in recent years thanks to fierce worldwide competition.In short, this is the greatest time in the history of wine for sauvignon blanc appreciation. There’s more of it than ever and, improbably, the increased quantity has resulted in increased quality, thanks to worldwide competition. The free market wins again.HERE’S THE (TANGY) DEALDOG POINT VINEYARD SAUVIGNON BLANC “MARLBOROUGH” 2005 New Zealand sauvignon blanc is the newest wine darling. And what a come-hither creature it is, too. The short story on Kiwi sauvignon blanc is that growers first planted sauvignon blanc experimentally in the Marlborough district, which is the northernmost point of New Zealand’s South Island. It looks across the Cook Strait to the city of Wellington. (By the way, if you want to read a thrilling account of swimming across the frigid, swirling waters of the Cook Strait to Marlborough from Wellington, I recommend Lynne Cox’s “Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer” [Alfred A. Knopf, 2004].)Anyway, what resulted was one of winedom’s rarest occurrences: the creation of a new species of wine. The Marlborough district birthed a sauvignon blanc like no other. It clearly tastes like sauvignon blanc but with a twist: a bracing, sharply defined sauvignon blanc with highly delineated scents and tastes of citrus fruits, mango, guava and pear. It’s literally mouthwatering thanks to crisp acidity from the zone’s baby-it’s-cold-down-there climate. The wine world went wild, exclaiming over its originality.Today, Marlborough-grown sauvignon blanc is, if not quite hohum, a more normal offering. No one is astonished anymore. If anything, in certain circles an “oh, that again” ennui has set in. Inevitably, large commercial bottlings have appeared, bringing with them a lower quality standard. That doesn’t help.But when you taste a top-drawer Marlborough sauvignon blanc the excitement returns in an electric instant. Dog Point Vineyard is the galvanic ticket.The skinny on Dog Point is that it was one of the earliest, and best, Marlborough vineyards. Until the 2002 vintage, it sold its grapes to others. But then, in alliance with James Healy, the former winemaker for Cloudy Bay winery (which produced the first Marlborough sauvignon blanc to attract world attention), Dog Point Vineyard made its own wine. In short, it’s an exceptional vineyard with a great winemaker. You can’t beat that combination. This is great Kiwi sauvignon blanc – as good as it gets.$19.95 (PJ Wine; Martin Brothers Wines and Spirits; Beacon Wines and Spirits).By the way, if you see the 2004 vintage, grab that, too. It was lovely as well.PATIANNA SAUVIGNON BLANC “MENDOCINO” 2004 California’s Mendocino County has long been in the shadow of Sonoma and Napa counties to its immediate south. They have the star quality, while Mendocino County seemed rustic and rough-hewn. Partly this was real (there’s still a lot of logging that goes on in Mendocino, to say nothing of a certain highly lucrative illegal crop). But partly it was a bum rap.One taste of this beautifully refined sauvignon blanc from the new (founded in 1997) Patianna Organic Vineyards is enough to prove the point. The name is slightly misleading: This 126-acre vineyard is not merely organic, it’s biodynamic. It’s the difference between being merely observant and ultra-orthodox. Biodynamic agriculture and wine-making is based on the beliefs of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. It’s rigorous, intensive, and admirable.You can’t quite taste biodynamics in a wine. But you can taste the goodness that comes from it, assuming the right grape in the right place. Sauvignon blanc in the Hopland section of Mendocino County is just the right combination, and this superb bottling proves it. This is graceful, beautifully defined sauvignon blanc walking the knife-edge between notes of warmth (figs, melons) and coolness (herbs and lime). It’s worth seeking out. $15.99 to $19.99 (PJ Wines; Columbus Circle Liquors; Chambers Street Wines; Zachys).

Point Blanc

Point Blanc

More from the New York Sun

In Stunning Move, Fetterman Addresses GOP Midterm Convention, Praising Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator

AI Breakthrough Might Have Enticed Curious Aliens to Earth

Sarah Palin Accuses Fox of Canceling Her as Network Faces MAGA Fury Over the Departure of Maria Bartiromo

As Oil Prices Rise, Stocks Plunge, Trump Promises Low Oil Prices After Midterm Election

Can ‘The Uprising’ Bring Medieval Rebellion to Life in an Age of Modern Populism?

Never Bet Against Trump To Tell the Economic Boom Story

British Firms Fear Becoming ‘Collateral Damage’ as America Threatens To Ban Them Over UK Sanctions on Israel

The Midterms: Time, Place, and Trump

More from the New York Sun

In Stunning Move, Fetterman Addresses GOP Midterm Convention, Praising Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator

AI Breakthrough Might Have Enticed Curious Aliens to Earth

Sarah Palin Accuses Fox of Canceling Her as Network Faces MAGA Fury Over the Departure of Maria Bartiromo

As Oil Prices Rise, Stocks Plunge, Trump Promises Low Oil Prices After Midterm Election

Can ‘The Uprising’ Bring Medieval Rebellion to Life in an Age of Modern Populism?

Never Bet Against Trump To Tell the Economic Boom Story

British Firms Fear Becoming ‘Collateral Damage’ as America Threatens To Ban Them Over UK Sanctions on Israel

The Midterms: Time, Place, and Trump