Marglin on Taste

I first wrote about New Zealand sauvignon blancs in this column in 1997, and I do not mind being a man ahead of my time. Back then, New Zealand was a new, exciting, and relatively undiscovered wine region. Cloudy Bay, one of the country’s leading wineries, had attracted some notice in America, but that was pretty much it. I love it when the world and I are in sync, however, so it gives me great pleasure to report that currently, the hottest white wines are not chardonnays or rieslings, but sauvignon blancs “” specifically, the solid 2000 vintage from New Zealand (where the harvest wraps up in March and April, so the 2001s are in the tanks, while the 2000s were released this year). If you have not tried them, you are missing some of the best wine values anywhere. New Zealand is on fire.

No one would deny sauvignon blanc’s position as New Zealand’s most important varietal (indeed, New Zealand is probably the only country in the world that could, or would, make this claim). Why do folks love the SBs from NZ so much? It may be the refreshing, thirst-quenching, citrus notes up front, or the exotic herbal undertones that add complexity on the finish. These wines are known for their vibrancy, their sharp, concentrated tartness, and their distinctive aromas. Once you start sipping, it’s hard to stop. “Refreshing” is the word I keep coming back to “” and unlike chardonnays, which overwhelm many foods, sauvignon blancs from this region pair well with most fish and shellfish dishes. They can also go with chicken or pizza on warmer summer nights.

So what makes New Zealand offerings so approachable? “It’s the climate,” says Tim Preston, a winemaker there. “New Zealand is smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We have a maritime climate with warm days, cool nights, and a very long growing season.”

New Zealand is about 1200 miles from Australia. Roughly the size of California, the country comprises two islands, the North Island and the South Island. Most of the North Island’s top wineries are near Hawke’s Bay, Martinborough, and Waiheke Island, all located just offshore from the country’s largest city, Auckland. The North Island produces many high-quality wines, but it’s the northern tip of the South Island, near Marlborough, that has brought New Zealand to the wine world’s attention. A stunningly beautiful bowl rimmed by steep mountains, Marlborough is a valley devoted largely to sauvignon blanc. The region boasts a climate similar to that of Burgundy and gets more sunshine than any other place in New Zealand. Cool ocean breezes coupled with long growing days and plenty of wind allow the grapes to mature and gain intensity while retaining high acidity.

New Zealand wine has just begun to come into its own. Until 20 years ago, the country placed heavy restrictions on the sale of alcohol, but repeal of those draconian laws sparked a wine revolution. When Australian winemakers crossed the ocean to produce the first vintage of Cloudy Bay in 1985, the unique, seductive, fruity sauvignon blanc put the region on the world’s wine map. Wine guru Oz Clarke was an early champion, and Cloudy Bay drew widespread notice in the mid ’90s, just as American drinkers were discovering alternative varietals. As a result, New Zealand sauvignon blanc quickly became a cult wine. But although it graces many fine restaurants’ wine lists, most stores get severely limited allocations, much of which goes to their best customers. Cloudy Bay remains the gold standard, but I have tasted many SBs recently that give it a run for its money and then some (at least insofar as the 2000 vintage is concerned).

Sauvignon blanc, like Burgundy, can be very expressive of the region’s terroir. Americans have become accustomed to oaky chardonnays, and US producers tend to oak sauvignon blancs a tad too heavily for my taste (many of these are called fumé blancs, a term coined by Robert Mondavi in the early ’70s). The kiwi style involves less oak, no malolactic fermentation, and just the right balance between fruit and herbal notes (largely determined by how much sun exposure the grapes receive, which in turn is directly related to the angle of the vines and the extensiveness of the “canopy,” or leaves). One thing is for certain: these wines explode in your mouth with a raw, unadorned beauty that excites the palate. They’re like Liv Tyler in the movie Stealing Beauty “” young, invigorating, alive, untamed, but balanced, poised, and ready.

Here are a few of my favorites, all of which sell for about $10 to $25. Almost all the New Zealand sauvignon blancs available in Massachusetts are excellent, and given their reasonable prices, I would encourage you to try a few and find which one(s) you like best. Just do me one favor “” make your first sip a small one. I wouldn’t want you to burn your tongue.

Whenever I ask my guests what they’d like to drink, those choosing wine prefer red to white about 80 percent of the time. Some people like the taste of red wine more; others find red wines more complex; a third category, at least at my place, think their chances of getting a “better” wine increase if they pick red “” and they may be right. But in truth, most wine enthusiasts love white wines as much as they do reds “” just differently.

Two whites top my list of favorite wines: Le Montrachet, a chardonnay from Burgundy, and Château d’Yquem, the ultra-expensive sweet wine from Bordeaux. Most white wines are a far cry from these powerhouses, but there is a distinct pleasure in drinking a perfectly chilled white. The key, besides knowing when they’re appropriate, lies in understanding what you are tasting. This column will arm you with some descriptors “” words you can use to articulate your appreciation of the tastes found in the best white wines.

Red wines imply big flavors, but great white wines often prove more subtle. One reason for this is that white wines have less contact with the skins of the grapes, and much of the complexity in red wines (and, not coincidentally, the tannins) comes from the skins. With fish, white wines are better than most reds (other than pinot noir) because the tannins in bigger reds tend to make most fish taste slightly metallic. White wines must be more balanced, because other than oak and sugar, there is nothing in them to hide any faults.

Most whites should taste fresh (there are exceptions, but they tend to exceed the price range favored by this column). Many whites will have a citrusy taste, such as the grapefruit flavors in many sauvignon blancs, the lime in great viogniers and some dry rieslings, or the almost orange taste in some muscats. Other fruits include peaches and apricots (in the Rhône wines such as viognier and roussanne), lychee nuts (often found in good gewürztraminers), and apples and pears (in rieslings, chenin blancs, pinot gris, and pinot blancs). I taste pear in great chardonnays (like those made by Staglin Family Vineyards in Napa) and sometimes pineapple, too. Tropical-fruit tastes like papaya and mango crop up more rarely, but I often detect the flavor of gooseberries in really good sauvignon blancs (especially those up-and-coming wines from New Zealand like Cloudy Bay, Brancott, and Goldwater).

Sometimes white wines present not-always-unpleasant vegetal characteristics. People speak of asparagus flavors in sauvignon blancs (some say that both these wines and Müller-Thurgaus smell a bit like cat’s pee!), or use the words “herbaceous” and “grassy.” Good white Burgundy often has certain vegetal notes, but I find them less in chardonnays from other regions. In arneis, an Italian white, I taste either licorice or anise (or maybe it’s fennel “” Tom’s of Maine has a toothpaste in this flavor). Other white wines suggest nuts: almonds in roussanne and Italian tocai; hazelnuts in marsanne, chardonnay, and Alsatian pinot blancs; chestnuts in grüner veltliners. Great chardonnays also often have a mineral taste from the soil, and when no oak is used, as in Chablis (made from chard) or Pouilly-Fumé (made from sauvignon blanc), you can get hints of flint. Other times, these wines can taste smoky.

Sweeter white wines almost always suggest a degree of honey (especially sweet chenin blancs and mature chardonnays). But there are other flowery elements in many white wines: honeysuckle in riesling and gewürztraminer, floral notes generally in viognier. Very rarely a wine will taste grapey to me, especially muscats, rieslings, and gewürztraminers.

Great rieslings probably have the widest assortment of flavors: some people describe a petrol smell or flavor, as well as baked apple (with the sugar and cloves thrown in for good measure) and the honey notes alluded to above. Chardonnays have the second-widest range, with flavors including butter and fat (resulting from diacetyl, a byproduct of malolactic fermentation, which converts the greener, sharper acids into the softer malic acids), tropical fruits, honeysuckle, and hazelnuts. The flavors in complex exemplars of these wines may seem subtle at first, but the more you drink, the more you will taste: fruits, flowers, vegetation, minerals “” the bounty of this earth.

Isn’t that what makes wine great in the first place “” the fact that experience yields new pleasures in taste? The more white wines you taste, the more you will taste in them. And next time you visit, you may change your mind and ask me for a glass of white instead. You probably won’t be disappointed.