Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc produces distinctive, fresh, crisp white wine with good acidity and lots of green flavours - asparagus, gooseberries, that kind of thing. As such, it has proved enormously popular around the world, especially since the fashion has moved away from Chardonnay and heavily oaked wines. It is grown everywhere, but its strongholds are the Loire Valley in France and New Zealand. When Cloudy Bay first appeared it was thrilling in the intensity of its fruit, bursting with fresh green flavours that presented a total contrast to the more crisp, neutral wines known from the Loire. New Zealand now produces a huge amount of Sauvignon Blanc in the Cloudy Bay mould, while the Loire, especially in the villages of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, has seen a huge improvement in the quality of its Sauvignon.