Sauvignon Blanc! The freshest wine in the world! (Sauvignon Blancs1/2)
So what are we tasting today, Jay? Before tasting we have to announce that Peter will be arriving later Better late than never Alright You've got two cameras. You can edit Peter in Yeah! We're gonna taste six Sauvignon Blanc Yum~ Do you like Sauvignon Blanc? When it's good, I love Sauvignon Blanc Even when it's mediocre, it can be okay Sauvignon Blanc is a component in some of the great white wines of the world The great wines of Graves in Bordeaux are blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, by and large I love having oysters with Entre-deux-Mers Yeah. Oysters and un-oaked Sauvignon Blanc, delicious Yeah, I love it I prepared six bottles of Sauvignon Blanc for today Five of them are from New Zealand And one of them is from Chile Okay. The Chileans had problems When Phylloxera hit, there were cuttings taken from Bordeaux to down to Chile At that point in time (besides Sauvignon Blanc) there was Sauvignon Vert and Savagnin… and other things that were planted in Bordeaux And those went down, and so…
The Sauvignon Blanc in Chile was frequently a field blend of those And didn't taste particularly like Sauvignon Blanc The new plantings in Casablanca and Leyda which are on the coast, so cooler parts Are 100% Sauvignon Blanc For the most part, they're planted with a UC Davis Clone I think it's clone No. 10 But that clone tends to give grassiness As opposed to the gooseberry that you find in the Loire Valley So we'll see if we can use that as our criteria Okay! And I noticed, being the nosy man that I am, that almost all these are screw caps Yeah, exactly. Usually, I prefer the bottles with a screw cap to that of cork Yeah, so do I (Tasting) In terms of color, there is almost no difference Right. They're all the same color I didn't manupulate at all this time! I suspect that they've all been made the same way So French winemakers from Bordeaux working in Napa and working in South Africa… And Austrailians working in France… Everybody going all over the place Flying winemaker…
That makes us more difficult to identify the countries and regions Correct So this first wine. Fairly good intensity, aromotics, light to medium yellow in color All the wines, basically, are a variant of that, right? Good intensity, aromatics of citrus Mineral… but I also get some grassy notes Nice acidity It's got a creaminess on the finish That's from that lees contact Getting geeky! Permission to be geeky? It's alright, from time to time So the positively charged proteins in these cells bind to the negatively charged tannins, and drop out Much in the same way…
If you have black coffee, the tannins in the black coffee give bitterness We take some cream or milk, the protein in the milk is positively charged, binds to those tannins, they drop out And the coffee tastes smoother! Alright… Simple chemistry! It doesn't sound that simple, but it sounds very interesting It's fining Number one's delightful. If I had to knock it at all, it would be… just a little bit harsh, in a way? But I like it. It's a delightful wine Very varietal Nothing to fight about Real purity of fruit… Could that be New Zealand? Absolutely 10, 15 years ago, it used to be very herbaceous But it was excused, right? People liked that herbaceousness They did like the herbaceousness But then, some people said, "Well, it's a bit too much" The first one! Babambabam…
New Zealand, Oyster Bay, 2019 It's got a little sugar in it to balance off Good varietal characteristic, a very nice wine What's the cost about? $10? Sorry, I have the price on my computer While you're tasting the second wine, I'll get the price Okay Right away Before I go, I would like to taste too! (Tasting) So the first wine, it's $13 This is very similar to the first wine Execpt that thare's just more to it Fuller in the mouth A bit more complex, really nice mouth feel Nice finish, a bit longer on the finish I would expect New Zealand on this wine as well We've gone up the quality level Not much to choose between them for me There's a little bit more stuffing to this wine, but it doesn't have the charm of the previous one Probably a little bit more expensive Yeah, it was a bit of a toss-up.
I thought of the first as an aperitif The second was a bit richer, would hold up to food a bit better Number two… It's a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc Babich… It's $14 I like this Yeah, very nice Beautiful bottle for $14 Yes, delicious bottle So for Peter, I'll hide it again Okay, then. Let's go to Number 3 I find this to be a little less successful than the first two wines I get more tannin on the palate Me too. It's almost… tannic Yeah, it is tannic Some friends who… some friends who like wine! Peter I'm sorry I'm late So five of them are from New Zealand And only one is from Chile So you haven't decided where they're from yet? Because you haven't tasted them all yet? So you don't know…? No, no.
Not yet I'll just quickly taste the others because now I've got to figure out which one's which And I haven't manipulated the wines No oak, no sugar No. (Patrick: Yet!) That has even more concentration than the other two It's a food wine for me Tasting it now again, I like it slightly worse than the other two But again, we're splitting some hairs Yeah Some hairs? Peter and I are losing our hairs from having split them so many times! You're doing better than I am, which pisses me off You've got some colors, still! I was so upset the other day We were showing old photographs of when we all got together to run marathons And one of the guys was there, and he knows all of us And he's looking through the things and he says, "There, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…
Who's that? He's standing next to me! Who's that?" He says, "Is this you?" Because I had black, black hair Your eyebrows are still very black Because Valerie pisses on them What are you talking about…? Number three is Matua Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, 2019 $10 Paying $3 more for the Oyster bay, it gives you a smoother Sauvignon Blanc I would definitely pay more And $4 for the Babich I would do that That doesn't mean I'm rich! But I'm ready to pay $4 more for better quality Yes, but it can be, let's say… Now, this isn't going to be for our lunch or our dinner? Then I'll but number three! You want to start off on number four, Peter? On the nose, a little bit of lemon. Well-balanced on the nose and on the palate Lots of kiwi fruit Quite Sauvignon Blanc, gentle, well done. To me, this is New Zealand. Liked it a lot The old style was lots of asparagus and bell pepper In your face In your face! And they've toned it down.
I completely agree with you I thought it was a very nice wine! Wine number four… I thought it was New Zealand after all of this as well You too? Yeah And I think it was the best of the first four Number four is Kim Crawford Kim Crawford? Amazing 2019, $15 What it does show, $15 and under here in the United States, you can get very nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc I know from experience that paying more, going up the quality level, you can get even more still But these are very good value wines I agree Shall we do number five now? Slightly less varietal at the beginning But then very definitive varietal on palate Well-mannered again, gentle I liked it a lot. I also thought it was New Zealand wine Yeah, I'm in the same boat Though it's interesting… I got maybe a little hint of some old barrel here I think we're a little bit further up the price chain.
Very nice wine It's more lactic than the others, the previous ones Number five Cloundy Bay Well, you are going up. They've improved their wine Cloudy Bay, when it became a hit all by itself, was, to my mind, terrible That was good It used to be very asparagus. Now it's very delicious And this is the most expensive one Is it like, $30? $30 It's more elegant than the other wines It's a much longer finish And we know that our last wine…
I know the identities of the first three This is different from all the other wines It is. I would have gone to say this was the Chilean one anyway There's lots of oak on this wine It so happens that I like it the best of all of them You like it the best? Which is strange because I would normally prefer things like this to be un-oaked That is true But I like the complexity Nice, mellow The character that I liked And it was the only one of the six wines that had a characteristic that I find most endearing in Sauvignon Blanc, which is what I call, 'streets after the rain' That sort of, wet gravel character That was the only one that had it Wet gravel…
Alright, number six Cono Sur Bicicleta Reserva , 2018 Bicicleta? Yeah How much did it cost? It costs $10 Yeah, I like it You like it? Mhm It's a delight, right? We get on our knees and pray to god, thank you, that we've had a flight of wines, and they were all pretty enjoyable! Absolutely. No, it's a very reliable grape variety They make good wine out of it all over the world The people know how to deal with it They don't get too serious about it for the most part So what is your favorite? Mine is a Cloudy Bay Cloudy Bay And yours? Mine is the Chilean wine, followed by the Cloudy Bay The Chilean wine, followed by Cloudy Bay Mine is Kim Crawford It was very mellow Mhm, yeah They're all pretty nice! Yeah, that's the thing.
They're all pretty nice wines The wines all brought smiles to our faces Not like that last video where you got me going "Ughaaagh!" I've been poisoned! So prepared a little bit of food Oh? to enjoy with Sauvignon Blanc Looks spectacular! Yeah? Yeah! So, you have to make a promise Mm-hm? We will never see them again.
