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7 wines that will reignite your love affair with Sauvignon Blanc

Shutterstock / grafvision
Shutterstock / grafvision

Good old Sauvignon Blanc: dependable, so very versatile when it comes to food pairings, and great for quaffing with pals who share your passion for this particular grape. Order it and you know it won’t disappoint - the wine taken care of, you can sit back and focus on the chat, confident that your choice will go down well.

But every love affair benefits from a little excitement, and Sauvignon Blanc’s infinite variety provides plenty of opportunity to play around.

The magic of this easy-drinking wine lies in its high acidity, medium-body and defining notes of gooseberry, elderflower, passion fruit and grapefruit, balanced with nettle, grass and green pepper herbal notes. The aromatics belong to chemicals found in both grapes and wine called methoxypyrazines, for the herbaceous flavours, and mercaptans or thiols, for the fruity flavours. Cooler climates tend to result in higher concentrations of the former, giving more herbaceous wines, such as those from New Zealand. Wines from more moderate climates will have higher concentrations of thiols, with flavours tending more towards passion fruit and elderflower.

With a balance of fruit and vegetable flavours and nearly always unoaked, the classic regions of Sauvignon Blanc production are the Loire Valley – with wines that are more restrained and clean on the palate, and with limestone minerality, from key appellations such as Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and Menetou-Salon; Bordeaux, with distinctly herbaceous, grassy and elderflower notes, and the New World - New Zealand being a stand-out location. But tradition aside, whether the Sauvignon Blanc is from a less-familiar region or is made in a more unusual style, it can be fun to get your palate excited all over again.

Depending on the style, Sauvignon Blanc makes an ideal partner for lean and meatier white fish, shellfish, spicy and aromatic dishes, not to mention goats cheese. With such diverse food options, it's easy to see why this grape is a winner, time after time.

Weingut Wageck Tertiär, Pfalz, 2015

Made from four different Sauvignon Blancs, from three different parcels in limestone-rich soil, most of this wine is fermented in stainless steel with 10 per cent spontaneously fermented in small wooden barrels. All combine to give a clean, super thirst-quenching, mineral-driven delight, with mandarin and grapefruit undertones.

£13.50, Oddbins, Call 0800 328 2323

Emil Bauer & Söhne “Asshole” Sauvignon Blanc, Pfalz, 2015

This is another Sauvignon Blanc from Germany’s Pfalz wine-growing region, but with a more off-dry style. It displays crisp, fresh flavours of green peppers and nettle, with a background of tropical notes, alongside juicy green apples and lime. A great accompaniment to roast chicken or red mullet. Fans of New Zealand styles will love this.

£13.50, Red Squirrel Wine, Buy it here

Shingle Peak Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, 2015

New Zealand brothers Ross and Bill Spence founded Matua Valley Wines in 1973 in an old tin shed in the heart of Marlborough’s Golden Mile. Many accolades later, their award-winning Shingle Peak Reserve boasts intense and rich flavours of refreshing lemon, freshly cut grass, green pepper, passion fruit and grapefruit. With flavours all in alignment, a glass or two with a salad niçoise or fish and chips will make you feel one step closer to springtime.

£13.99, Laithwaites, Buy it here

The Supernatural Sauvignon Blanc

From Hawke’s Bay, on New Zealand’s warmer North Island, a region with a reputation for producing quality Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Supernatural Wine Company’s Sauvignon Blanc is made with minimal intervention and with skin contact prior to fermentation to intensify flavours and add weight and colour to the wine. Juicy notes of grilled sugared grapefruit and burstingly ripe flavours of peach, joyfully running down your chin.

£14.75, Vintage Roots, Buy it here

Domaine Gardrat, Vin de Pays Charentais, Sauvignon 2015

A superb young wine from Domaine Gardrat in Charentais, the region known for producing Cognac. Light-bodied and pure, with delicate notes of elderflower and grapefruit and a nervy minerality, this works as an aperitif and goes with so many dishes, from light salads to seafood, goats cheese, curry, even chicken soup - its zesty acidity awakens the taste buds.

£10.40, Yapp Brothers, Buy it here

Black Elephant Vintners, Two Dogs, a Peacock and a Horse, 2016

In Franschhoek in South Africa, this Sauvignon Blanc is hand-harvested from seven different plots at 300m altitude, in the cooler early mornings to retain fresh aromas of green fruit, lychees, guava, and lime with a touch of old-vine, barrel-fermented Semillon to add body. The Sauvignon also benefits from three months of lees contact to add richness to the ongoing acidity. Deliciously refreshing, this is a good-quality example of Cape Town’s ability to bridge Old World with New. Enjoy with strong seafood flavours from Cape Town’s Camps Bay such as swordfish, langoustines and kingklip.

£13.99, Red Squirrel Wine, Buy it here

Cloudy Bay Te Koko, Marlborough, 2013

From New Zealand’s most iconic winery, Cloudy Bay’s Te Koko is fermented using indigenous wild yeasts and - unusually – it is aged in oak with lees stirring and released after three years, to give intense, mouth-filling flavours of lychees, almonds, gooseberry and citrus. Rich on the palate, the ripe tropical sweetness and almost caramel undertones are balanced with crisp acidity and a nutty, spicy finish.

£37.50, Majestic, Buy it here

2015 Pouilly-Fumé, Domaine Thibault, André Dezat

It would be sacrilege to mention Sauvignon Blanc without referring to the Loire Valley. This is a restrained style from one of the oldest wine-grower families in Sancerre, dating back to 1550. With Andre Dezat now at the helm, the 2015 Pouilly-Fumé has pure flavours of peach, nectarine, pear and citrus zing, against a backdrop of smoky gun flint minerality. Clean, refreshing with a wonderful depth and intensity of flavour, this holds up well with smoked salmon or mackerel, oysters, meatier fish such as halibut, as well as spicy lamb meatballs, foie gras or goats cheese. A classy upgrade, this would also be very welcomed served as an aperitif.

£19.50, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Buy it here

Nuria Stylianou is our WSET-qualified wine and spirits columnist. Email her on nuria.stylianou@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @nu_on_the_vine