The Evolution of Sauvignon Blanc

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TARTNESS IN THE HILLS The best sauvignon blancs from New Zealand’s South Island are known for having bite.

THE sauvignon blanc grape owes a lot to New Zealand. Thirty years or so ago nobody knew much about it at all. Sure, it was a component of white Bordeaux, and yes, it was part of the blend in the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It made wonderful white wines in the Loire Valley, particularly in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, as it still does.

But the grape’s name never appears on those French labels. Even in California, the grape gained popularity only after it was rechristened fumé blanc by Robert Mondavi.

Only in the 1980s, when New Zealand started to produce bold, pungent, refreshing sauvignon blanc wines, did the name of the grape become something that people sought out. So great was New Zealand’s success that the rest of the world could not help but embrace the grape.

South Africa began making delicious sauvignon blancs, as did Chile. California re-evaluated whether sauvignon blanc was best suited for the oaky pseudo-chardonnays it was making and opted for the leaner New Zealand style instead.

Bordeaux took note, too, and the good, inexpensive sauvignon blanc wines bottled nowadays as basic Bordeaux blanc offer a restrained Gallic nod in the direction of the Antipodes.

The question today is, how much does New Zealand owe to sauvignon blanc?

Not so much, apparently. In a sampling of 25 New Zealand sauvignon blancs the Dining section’s tasting panel found far too few of the bright, vibrant wines that had made New Zealand a worldwide force. Instead, we found too many wines that seemed aimed at being commercially inoffensive. Some were too sweet. Others simply seemed wishy-washy.

“The style has definitely changed,” said Scott Mayger, general manager of Telepan on the Upper West Side, who joined Florence Fabricant and me for the tasting, along with his wife, Beth von Benz, the wine director at Porter House in the Time Warner Center. “The wines showed conservatism. They’re all safe. It’s about moving boxes.”

Florence put it another way, calling them “dumbed down.”

New Zealand sauvignon blanc used to be a go-to bottle. Confronted with a dull wine list or a menu of dishes not traditionally associated with wine, you could happily count on New Zealand sauvignon blanc for its piercing, vivacious refreshment. You can still find wines like that, but now, as our tasting demonstrated, you have to choose carefully among producers.

The most welcome example of the freshness and liveliness associated with New Zealand sauvignon blancs was found in our No. 1 bottle, the 2006 Cellar Selection from Villa Maria. This wine had the classic tart pungency that wine writers so often liken to gooseberries. For the gooseberry-deprived among us, let’s just call it an instantly recognizable flavor that combines lemon, lime and tropical fruit with a sort of grassy herbaceousness.

For every wine like the Villa Maria, though, it seemed as if we found two like a 2006 Daniel Schuster, sweet and tutti-frutti with little refreshing acidity, or like a 2005 Spy Valley, as pallid as a dish of lemon water.

The good news is we did find more wines that we liked. The 2006 Pioneer Block 3 from Saint Clair was a throwback to brasher times, when a New Zealand wine wasn’t afraid of forthright, pure zinginess. The 2006 Cloudy Bay was a little quieter than the top two wines but nonetheless bold, zesty and delicious.

It was a good showing for Cloudy Bay, kind of the granddaddy among New Zealand sauvignon blanc producers, but another Cloudy Bay entry, the 2004 Te Koko, the oldest wine in the tasting and the most expensive at $55, was overwhelmed by the vanilla flavor imparted by oak barrels. Perhaps it was an effort to make a refined white Bordeaux-style wine, but I’m afraid it didn’t work.

The vast majority of the wines we tasted came from the Marlborough region on New Zealand’s South Island, which has been the home of the country’s best sauvignon blanc. Only one of our top wines, the 2005 Palliser Estate, came from outside the region, from Martinborough to the north, yet it, too, had the signature New Zealand flavors of tart lemon and lime with a little mineral tang as well.

Other wines worth noting were the 2006 Whitehaven and the 2005 Mud House White Swan Reserve.

Even though we did find 10 wines that we liked, the tasting was a disappointment, and we were left to ponder the reasons. I’m sure that some producers have cynically decided to push quantity at the expense of quality, overcropping so that the wine is thin rather than concentrated, and manipulating the wine with techniques like adding sugar or acid to make up for picking grapes at the wrong time. Both techniques are legal in New Zealand, by the way.

I don’t think that’s the issue, though. Every corner of the wine world faces similar problems. But I’ve talked to enough people in the New Zealand wine trade to suspect that they take the grape for granted.

As successful as they’ve been with sauvignon blanc, New Zealand producers nowadays would much prefer to talk about all they’re doing with pinot noir. Now there’s a trophy grape! New Zealand hasn’t exactly jilted sauvignon blanc — it still pays the bills — but perhaps some flowers and a romantic dinner would be in order.

In another way, though, New Zealand has shown that it really does take its relationship seriously with its long-term signature wine. Of the 25 bottles we tasted, 22 came with screwcaps and only three with corks. Vivacious wines like these, meant to be drunk when young and fresh, are the perfect opportunity for using screwcaps and removing the potential for cork-induced taint. Now that’s respect.

Tasting Report: Pungent and Refreshing, With a Citrusy Tang

BEST VALUE

Villa Maria Marlborough $17 ***

Cellar Selection 2006

Vibrant, with classic pungency and high-contrast fruit and floral flavors. (Importer: Vineyard Brands, Ala.)

Saint Clair Marlborough $25 ** 1/2

Pioneer Block 3 2006

Brash and lively with clean lime, anise and mineral flavors. (Winesellers Ltd., Skokie, Ill.)

Cloudy Bay Marlborough 2006 $30 ** 1/2

Sedate and refreshing with lemon-lime, herbal and grass aromas and flavors. (Moët Hennessey USA, New York)

Whitehaven Marlborough 2006 $19 ** 1/2

Lemon-lime, green apple and floral flavors, with some tropical fruit thrown in. (Whitehaven, Haywood, Calif.)

Mud House Marlborough $17 ** 1/2

White Swan Reserve 2005

Bright, pungent and refreshing with tangy flavors of lime, ginger and grass. (Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.)

(Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, N.Y.)

Allan Scott Marlborough 2005 $13 **

Subtle and spicy with balanced flavors of lemon zest, herbs and pepper. (T. Edwards, New York)

Palliser Estate Martinborough 2005 $17 **

Tart flavors of lime, lemon and minerals. (Negociants USA, Napa, Calif.)

Cable Bay Marlborough 2005 $18 **

Straightforward with pungent flavors of grapefruit and lime. (Martin Scott, Lake Success, N.Y.)

Kim Crawford Marlborough 2006 $12 **

Lemon, lime and herbal flavors with a touch of bell pepper. (Vincor USA, Esparto, Calif.)

Dog Point Marlborough 2006 $22 * 1/2

Grassy and herbal with a little sweetness. (Ex Cellars Wine Agencies, Solvang, Calif.)