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12 best sauvignon blancs that taste like summer in a glass

Crisp, exuberant and vibrant wines to sip on their own or pair with a meal

John Clarke
Tuesday 21 February 2023 17:33 GMT
<p>Delicious dry, white vino for all budgets </p>

Delicious dry, white vino for all budgets

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It has been called “summertime in a glass” and its impact has been compared – perhaps a little unkindly – to being hit in the mouth with an old peasant’s shoe.

The vino in question is one of the most immediately recognisable in the wine world – sauvignon blanc. Originating in France, where it is still justly celebrated in wines such as Pouilly fumé and sancerre, it really made its mark in a country that’s about as far away from the Loire Valley as you can find.

It was winegrowers in New Zealand who discovered, in the 1970s, that the grape adapted amazingly well to conditions in the South Island. By the 1980s, the country was producing a sauvignon blanc that, as wine writer Oz Clarke says, was so revolutionary that the world of wine would never be the same again.

As our round-up shows, in the 21st-century, New Zealand is still producing crisp, exuberant and vibrant sauvignon blancs with that bold gooseberry and exotic fruit flavour that almost explodes in the mouth.

But it’s also flourishing elsewhere, in Australia, South Africa, California and closer to home in Romania, Italy and in its original home on the banks of the Loire. With spring nearly here, there’s no better wine with which to welcome the sunshine.

How we tested

Many of the wines were tasted as accompaniments to a light lunch or early supper, some salad-based, including fish or seafood and others slightly spicy. Several were tasted with appetizers such as paté and prosciutto, while others were enjoyed by themselves as an aperitif before lunch or dinner.

The best sauvignon blancs for 2023 are:

  • Best sauvignon blanc overall – Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc 2022: £23, Sainsburys.co.uk
  • Best sauvignon blanc for a spring picnic – Mad Fish sauvignon blanc 2022: £9.50, Tesco.com
  • Best sauvignon blanc to pair with seafood – Astoria Suade sauvignon blanc 2021: £13.13, Honestgrapes.co.uk
  • Best value sauvignon blanc – Zana Romania sauvignon blanc 2021: £9, Ocado.com
  • Best sauvignon blanc for a touch of oak – Triplex sauvignon blanc 2021: £15.99, Laithwattes.co.uk
  • Best sauvignon blanc for welcome minerality – Journey’s End V6 sauvignon blanc 2019: £18, Ocado.com
  • Best sauvignon blanc for depth of flavour – Two Rivers convergence sauvignon blanc 2022: £16.50, Leaandsandeman.co.uk
  • Best sauvignon blanc for fruity intensity – Astrolabe Awatere Valley sauvignon blanc 2022: £13.99, Waitrosecellar.com
  • Best sauvignon blanc to pair with a salad – Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc 2022: £18,99, Thepipstop.co.uk
  • Best sauvignon blanc to pair with spicy food – Domaine des Patureaux Pouilly fumé 2021: £17.99, Majestic.co.uk
  • Best sauvignon blanc for an elegant aperitif – Seifried Estate sauvignon blanc 2021: £14.99, Waitrosecellar.com
  • Best sauvignon blanc for an everyday drink – La Belle Angele sauvignon blanc 2021: £9.99, Majestic.co.uk

Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc 2022

Cloudy Bay.png
  • Best: Overall
  • ABV: 13.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Marlborough

It’s the wine that put New Zealand on the map, and rightly so. Nowhere else in the world produces a sauvignon blanc quite like it. And it’s one area in particular – Marlborough, on the tip of the southern island that has been entrancing the wine world since it gained the accolade of Best Sauvignon in the World in 1986. That particular wine came from Cloudy Bay and it’s still the leader of the pack, with this 2022 vintage full of the vibrant and vigorous passion fruit and gooseberry notes you’d expect, along with hints of peach and melon. A certified winner in anyone’s book.

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Mad Fish sauvignon blanc 2022

Mad Fish sauvignon blanc 2022.png
  • Best: For a spring picnic
  • ABV: 12.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Margaret River, Western Australia

From the westernmost tip of Western Australia – where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean – comes a wine with a name that’s as beguiling as its taste. Warm days and mild nights at Madfish Bay in the Margaret River wine region produce a wine that’s as fresh, zesty and memorable as any from this part of Australia. Grassy notes tempered by up-front flavours of gooseberry and pear, along with a pleasing flintiness, make this a perfect wine with which to greet an English spring or an early summer.

  1. £9 from Tesco.com
Prices may vary
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Astoria Suade sauvignon blanc 2021

Astoria Suade.png
  • Best: For pairing with seafood
  • ABV: 12 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Veneto, Italy

A crisp and refreshing sauvignon blanc from brothers Paolo and Giorgio Polegato, who run the prize-winning Val De Brun Estate in the heart of the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene wine zone in Italy’s Veneto region. It’s a wine that brings a touch of spice to the table, with hints of pepper and sage complementing luscious notes of ripe fruit and a pleasing acidity, making it a perfect accompaniment for seafood appetizers or a plate of prosciutto. It also come in a slightly squat but attractively shaped bottle.

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Zana Romania sauvignon blanc 2021

Zana Romania.png
  • Best: For value
  • ABV: 12.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Timisoara, Romania

British know-how and a centuries-old winemaking tradition have happily combined in the Cramele Recas estate near Romania’s third largest city, Timisoara, to produce an Eastern European sauvignon blanc that fully deserves its place among its Australian and New Zealand counterparts. Fresh citrus and gooseberry notes, along with a zesty acidity, make for an enlivening but elegant drink that’s perfect for a warm spring evening.

  1. £9 from Ocado.com
Prices may vary
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Triplex sauvignon blanc 2021

Triplex sauvignon blanc 2021.png
  • Best: For a touch of oak
  • ABV: 12.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Here’s something different, and it’s nothing to do with safety glass. This Triplex marks the three different winemaking techniques used in the production of this sauvignon blanc from the Adelaide Hills wine region of South Australia. Harvested from a single vineyard, the grapes are split into three separate batches for fermentation: a concrete egg, to provide structure and depth; a French oak vat, to give an aromatic mouthfeel; and, finally, French 600l barrels for four days of full skin contact that offers creaminess and balance. The end result is an oaked sauvignon blanc with flavours of peaches and pears and subtle toasty oak notes that’s able to compete with similar wines from Bordeaux.

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Journey’s End V6 sauvignon blanc 2019

Journey’s End V6 sauvignon blanc 2019.png
  • Best: For welcome minerality
  • ABV: 13.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl, South Africa

A crisp and elegant South African sauvignon blanc that’s sourced from vineyard parcels from various wine regions, including Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl, thus adding a certain complexity to the wine. Handpicked early in the morning, the grapes then undergo eight hours of skin contact to enhance aromatic extraction before the juice is racked into the fermentation tanks for up to 40 days at low temperatures. Finally, it’s moved into stainless steel tanks for several months, with weekly lees stirring before bottling. The resulting wine is lemon-green in appearance, which reflects the flavours of lime, gooseberry, green fig and kiwi fruit that are obvious on the palate, offset by a defined minerality.

  1. £18 from Ocado.com
Prices may vary
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Two Rivers convergence sauvignon blanc 2022

Two Rivers.png
  • Best: For depth of flavours
  • ABV: 13 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Malborough, New Zealand

The two rivers in question are the Awatere and Wairau, and the convergence is the combination of the grapes that grow on both banks of these Marlborough waterways in New Zealand. The winery’s aim is to create inspiring wines with “elegance, purity and a sense of place” and it has to be said it’s succeeded, aided by the decision to ferment a portion of the wine in concrete egg tanks and clay amphora and then to age it on light yeast lees for three months. The outcome is a wine with a texture and a huge depth of flavour that encompasses lime, tropical fruit and peach with notes of coconut and flinty minerality.

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Astrolabe Awatere Valley sauvignon blanc 2022

Astrolabe Awatere Valley sauvignon blanc 2022.png
  • Best: For a fruity intensity
  • ABV: 13 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Malborough, New Zealand

Most of the sauvignon blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough wine region comes from the Wairau Valley in the north but this one’s from the Awatere Valley sub-region, where southerly and easterly breezes make it cooler, windier and drier, resulting in a later harvest. The flavours are more intense and accented too, with that inimitable strong fresh green fruit tang being accompanied by aromatic herbal notes and a nuanced and savoury acidity.

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Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc 2022

Napa Cellars.png
  • Best: For pairing with a salad
  • ABV: 14 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Napa Valley, California

Head winemaker at Napa Cellars, Joe Shirley, believes that the terroir of California’s Napa Valley is so distinctive, his job is to simply “guide the wine toward the purest interpretation of the land”. That interpretation leads to a sauvignon blanc that, benefitting from the region’s warm days and cool nights, has those distinctive gooseberry and stone-fruit flavours harnessed to a bright and lively acidity and a prolonged finish. It’s one to enjoy with shellfish, young vegetables or a simple summer salad.

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Domaine des Patureaux Pouilly fumé 2021

Domaine des Patureaux Pouilly fume 2021.png
  • Best: For pairing with spicy food
  • ABV: 12.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Loire Valley, France

Let’s not forget that the sauvignon blanc originated in France – more specifically, in the Loire Valley. It was there in the villages of Sancerre and Pouilly that these aromatic and tangy dry white wines first made a name for themselves. Pouilly fumé ­– the names pays tribute to its smoky minerality – is made entirely from sauvignon blanc grapes. This example from a father-and-son team on a small family-owned estate has that smokiness along with fresh notes of white fruit and ripe pears. It’s equally rewarding as the typical Aussie and New Zealand wines on this list.

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Seifried Estate sauvignon blanc 2021

Seifried Estate sauvignon blanc 2021.png
  • Best: For an elegant aperitif
  • ABV: 12.5 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Nelson, new Zealand

From a notable winery at Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island comes a sauvignon blanc that’s the product of two distinct vineyards. The first is Brightwater, 15km from the coast, where the vines grow amid boulders that retain the day’s heat. The second is the Queen Victoria vineyard, known for its orchards, kiwi fruit and hops. Together, they create a mouthwatering, fruit-forward wine with peach and tropical fruit flavours allied to a bright and crisp minerality. If you want freshness in a glass, this is the one to try.

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La Belle Angele sauvignon blanc 2021

La Belle Angele sauvignon blanc 2021.png
  • Best: For an everyday drink
  • ABV: 12 per cent
  • Size: 75cl
  • Region: Languedoc-Roussillon, France

A blend of sauvignon blanc from separate areas, this vin de France delivers crispness and flavour with a citrussy brightness on the tongue and welcome notes of gooseberry and green apple. Balanced and lively, it’s an ideal everyday drink to accompany a light lunch or an early summer picnic. The attractive label also commemorates (in Art Deco style) a celebrated muse of the Impressionist era.

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The verdict: Sauvignon blanc

The Domaine des Patureaux Pouilly fumé from the Loire Valley shows that sauvignon blanc still has that elegance and balanced fruit quality that characterises this French classic, while the Italian Astoria Suade from the Veneto also impresses with an aromatic sprightliness. The Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc from California has a depth and mouthfeel that lingers but it’s the Cloudy Bay that takes top honours. It may be a little pricey but you’re paying for a taste you won’t find anywhere else – mouthwatering and immediately revealing, with vibrant notes of passion fruit and lime, it really is in a class of its own.

Want more inspiration? Celebrate home-grown vino with the best English wines

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