Let's Sauvy B around the world
This issue was published on May 3, 2023.
Happy Wine Wednesday!
Today, we’re drinking sauvignon blanc and chatting with Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt, a senior marketing manager at Vivino. So pour yourself a glass and let’s get our wine nerd on!
Sauvignon Blanc
Peppers and Pyrazine
We’re drinking sauvignon blanc from all over the world this week in celebration of Sauvignon Blanc Day on Saturday (don’t forget to stock your fridge!). Let’s dive in, because this popular wine isn’t just for twenty-somethings at pool parties or moms at brunch, and this varietal has a lot more to offer than just being a restaurant’s house white.
The co-parent of the cabernet sauvignon grape (the other parent is the lesser-known cabernet franc) has its roots in the french word for “wild” – a reference to its unruly vines. Another name often used for sauvy b is “blanc fumé” or “fumé blanc” (often used in CA). While some mistake this to have some additional meaning, it’s just a synonym. There are sauvignon blancs of other names that do carry some additional meaning/characteristics, but we’ll get to that in a second.
First, let’s start with the core characteristic of this varietal. What makes sauvignon blanc undeniably, unmistakably sauvignon blanc?Green.You’ll almost always hear a sauvy b described as “green.” So…wtf does this actually mean?Think green bell pepper, freshly mowed grass, snap peas, jalapeño peppers, sage, thyme, or fresh parsley. It’s that bright, fresh, kind of vegetal but not quite bitter taste of…“green.”
Ready to get nerdy?
This green-ness comes from a compound called methoxypyrazine (or pyrazine for short). These are a type of chemical compound that specifically creates that green bell pepper flavor and smell, and are also found in cabernet sauvignon, where they give kind of a vegetal or herbal note. On the other hand, when things go poorly, it can provide an old asparagus or mushy pepper kind of smell. Gross.
So what other terms can you use to sound smart at your next sauvignon blanc tasting?
These wines will be high in acid, so you might get hints of grapefruit. Some sauvy bs also have notes of honey, white peach or…cat pee. Unlike smelling cat pee in your home, wine pros consider smelling cat pee in your sauvignon blanc a good thing. Wine people. We’re an odd bunch.
Going back to the pyrazine for a second - remember how I said this can also create a bad, old asparagus smell? The amount of methoxypyrazine decreases with more exposure to sunlight as the grape ripens. While this isn’t the only cause of a ‘bad’ sauvignon blanc, a sauvignon blanc made from underripe grapes could taste too vegetal – like canned asparagus. Remember when Whole Foods tried to sell asparagus water for $6? They should have just added some alcohol and sold it as bad sauvy b for $12.
Now that we have the key features of the varietal out of the way, where can we go to drink this unruly grape?Everywhere.
From Oregon to Texas to New York in the United States, Australia. New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, France, Moldova, Hungary, Russia, and Austria - just to name a few.
The most well known, tangy sauvy bs come from Austria, New Zealand, and the Loire Valley of France (more on those in a minute). South Africa and Chile are also known for producing high quality and great value sauvignon blancs. Over in Bordeaux, France (mostly known for their red wine blends), almost all of the white wine is made from a blend of sauvignon blanc and another varietal called sémillon. Now to the Loire Valley in France, where most geneticists believe that sauvignon blanc originates from.
When you talk about sauvignon blanc in the Loire Valley, you’re mostly talking about two neighboring regions in the farthest east part of the valley, about 130 miles south from Paris: Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé (pronounced pooh-ee). The sauvy bs made here are flinty and tangy, dry, refreshing, and clean. Pouilly-Fumé can be more smoky - hence the name (fumé means “smoke,” while Pouilly is a Roman general who presided there). They’re considered to be some of the best white wines to pair with food and, if you’re making a cheese board, will pair perfectly with a tangy yet creamy and salty goat cheese.
Over to New Zealand.
The sauvignon blanc produced by New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay was what put the country on the wine map (they were previously known just for lamb.) As Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible, put it: “It rocked the wine world by opening the door to a whole new galaxy of flavor…The wines are, quite simply, outrageousness in a bottle.”
It’s the most planted varietal here and is known for its vibrant, green flavors with a tropical backdrop (think mango, papaya, or passion fruit). The result is a dry and crisp sauvignon blanc that has plenty of freshness and zing without being overly green and vegetal. While Kim Crawford may be one of the most popular New Zealand sauv b producers, there plenty of others to try as well:
From Marlborough, the northernmost tip of the southern island: The historic Cloudy Bay, Greywacke, Mud House, and Wairau River
From Martinborough in the Wairarapa region, the southernmost tip of the northern island: Ata Rangi and Craggy Range
A few more quick stops around the world.
South Africa: The sauvignon blanc here is known to be smoky, minerally, and grassy
Austria: While not widely planted, they make some delicious sauvignon blancs that are also known for being smoky and grassy
And finally, back to the United States where you can find a variety of sauvignon blancs from coast to coast and in between.
Texas: The sauvignon blancs from the Lone Star state tends to have peachy, herbal flavors
Washington: It’s actually not a big grape here, but the sauvignon blancs are very fresh with some more herbal notes
California: The sauvy bs here are simple, snappy, and citrusy!
While this refreshing wine is perfectly good to drink solo, it also pairs perfectly with almost any food because of its high acidity. Anything from herb-forward sauces, salty cheeses (like feta, queso fresco, parmesan, pecorino, asiago, etc.), light meats, or Asian food with soy sauce.
Pad Thai? Sauvignon blanc. Fried fish tacos with guacamole? Sauvignon blanc. Greek salad? Shrimp cocktail? Sushi? Sauvignon blanc. Not only does it pair well with food, sauvy b is also a fantastic cooking wine. If your recipe calls for a dry white wine, a good quality sauvignon blanc or Sancerre will give your dish some freshness and a light herbal note.
Side note: If you’re cooking with wine, use good wine. Remember how we said that bad sauvignon blanc can taste like blegh, canned asparagus? Would you want that blegh, canned asparagus taste in your food? No.
Perhaps the best news about sauvignon blanc is that you can find absolutely amazing bottles in the $15-$20 range! Use Saturday’s Sauvignon Blanc day as an excuse to go wine shopping and try out a sauvignon blanc from a region or producer you haven’t tried before!
Final tip: If you’re a die-hard sauvy b drinker, give these wines a chance: Grüner veltliner, vermentino, chenin blanc, colombard, verdejo, and Vinho Verde (a white blend from Portugal that we talked about in a previous issue).
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
Senior Marketing Manager at Vivino
Merobebe
First of all, I feel like everyone is obsessed with Vivino. Every time I go to the wine store, there’s someone scanning bottles on the Vivino app.
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
Yes, I personally was a long time Vivino user before I started working there. They were one of the few brands that could steal me away from my [previous] position because I love the product so much and I've been such an active user. But yeah, it's a great app for people who aren't familiar with it.
It is a label recognition in software that also is combined with community ratings. So you'll scan a bottle and it'll pull up all the information you might need about that wine – where it's from, its vintage flavor profile, things like that. And then it also has what real wine drinkers think about the wine with reviews and ratings.
Over time, the app also gets to understand your personal palate based on your reviews so it can even recommend wine.
Merobebe
That's awesome. It's like Netflix, but for wine.
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
Exactly. The recommendation engines are very similar here.
Merobebe
So a few little icebreakers. What is your favorite non-wine beverage? What are you drinking now while you’re pregnant?
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
So historically, I would say black coffee. I'm a huge, huge coffee person. I joke that I drink coffee until it's time to drink wine, and then I drink wine and drink coffee. But I've had to cut back on that, so I've been doing a lot of sparkling water and a lot of nonalcoholic kombucha. That’s how I'm getting my fun drink fix while I'm pregnant.
Merobebe
If you could have any celebrity as your personal sommelier, who would it be?
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
So I don't know if this is cheating because she is in the wine industry, but I would definitely pick Pink because of her wine – I've never had it, but it's apparently fantastic. She was also a customer at a previous company that I worked for, so I know what kind of wine she consumes and it's a lot of really, really cool, hard to find French wines with small allocations.
I think that she has a really cool palate. She's making really cool wine. So I would definitely trust her with any wine that she recommended me to try.
Merobebe
As someone who's worked more on the corporate side of the wine industry, have you seen or experienced any biases or stereotypes against women in wine?
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
I think the thing that is really tough when we're talking about women in wine is making sure that they are celebrated as women who are making their way in a male dominated field without being tokenized. I think we see that happen sometimes, where somebody’s crowning achievement is that she's a woman in wine – which is exciting and is hard and should be celebrated.
But we should also make sure that her actual achievements that got her there are what we're really discussing: her winemaking ability, or the investments that she's made, not just that she is a woman who works in wine. She's a very cool person who is a woman and has made her way in a male dominated field, and that's worth celebrating. I certainly feel like historically, when I've gone to tastings or events with a male counterpart, my opinion, especially as a young woman, is not always as considered – or I'm not assumed to necessarily be as knowledgeable as I am.
We've even had instances where I've gone to a tasting with my husband and people will talk directly to him about the wine when he couldn't tell the difference between a pinot and a cab if his life depended on it!
Merobebe
There’s currently this veil of exclusivity around wine, like you have to be rich and you have to be in the old boys club and be fancy. This image of fine wine that you have to have only on special occasions, not just sitting at home on a Tuesday and opening a glass of wine. How do you think that the wine industry can better address the issue of affordability?
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
One of the things that I really encourage as a way to escape some of that perception of wine as this special occasion thing is to take as many opportunities as possible to consume it across all price points, across all regions and get out of thinking, Oh, the world is only Napa, only cab, and only over $100.Those wines have value. I have a lot of them in my personal collection. I love those wines, but there are also incredible wines coming out of Chile at under $10 that are world class.
Not to plug Vivino, but I think a brand like Vivino or the concept of what Vivino is trying to accomplish is really important. It's the democratization of wine, right? It's not just, What is [famous wine critic] Robert Parker saying that you should drink? It's, What does everybody in your community think about these wines? And you'll see quite often that some of these big labels don't always stand up in the ratings compared to smaller producers or wines from regions that are lower price points.
I think getting access to what the average person feels about wine helps all of us to shift the way that we think and how we define a “good wine,” because it shouldn't just be in the hands of a few reviewers like it has been historically. Realistically, up until this point, there have been a few very powerful people with very powerful pens who have told all of us what we should think about wine, which brands matter, and honestly, even what flavor profiles are good versus bad, just because that's that person's particular palate.
So democratizing wine is really important. Try wine from all over, talk to people about their wine, look at community ratings, look at community discussions about wine. It'll help you uncover wines that you maybe wouldn't have even thought to try. And it'll help you maybe find your new favorite in a price point that you can't even believe.
Merobebe
What’s the best way to get the most out of Vivino?
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
I would say, download Vivino at a time – I mean download Vivino whenever, but -
Merobebe
You mean download it right now! *laughter*
Shannon Coulson Jörgenfelt
Yes, right now! Download it at a time when you already know that you're going to be trying a couple of wines, or you're planning on opening a wine that you already know that you love, or if you're going wine tasting. Just start to feed it with information about you, feed it with information about your palate, and it will start to understand stylistically what you like – not just within the confines of, This is a Napa Chardonnay but realistically, What does the wine taste like? The algorithm is smart enough to know that, and then it can recommend things in that same flavor profile.
So the hack would definitely be scan: Scan often, rate often, and be honest with how you feel about wines.I started using Vivino very early in my wine journey and I would give basically everything a five, which is fine, but it definitely took a little bit of time for my algorithm to really adjust to what I actually like and consume on a regular basis. I'm quite a few years older than 21 and what I appreciate in wine has changed since then…
So use it often, be honest about what you do and don't like, and then you will start to see recommendations come through of producers you may not have heard of, but are a 100% match for your palate.
Get a wine-related movie or book pairing for your weekend.
Today’s pairing is Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure by Don and Petie Kladstrup
This story follows the true story of France’s courageous vintners who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity during World War II: wine.
French wine producers acted boldly to save their previous vineyards and wine bottles from the German Army after France fell to the Nazis in 1940. This book shares the little-known piece of history that saved the spirit of France.
See the reviews and buy Wine and War from a local bookstore here.
Send me your suggestions!
Is there a specific wine varietal or region you want to learn more about? I want to make sure Merobebe is helpful for you, so always feel free to reply to this email and let me know what wine questions you have.
Have a wine-derful week and see you next Wednesday!
Cheers,
Megumi