A TOUCH OF GRASS

JOEL L. FLEISHMAN

New tastes from the emerging breed of Sauvignons

Wine

Wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape must be the best white-wine buys on the market today. Whether called Sauvignon Blanc, Fume Blanc, Fume, or some proprietary name, they can be purchased, on average, for about half the going rate for Chardonnays of comparable quality. Sauvignon Blancs have traditionally come in two principal flavors—grassy and herbaceous/vegetal— which are the result of the particular grape clone and the soil in which it is grown. Recently, however, winemakers have begun vinifying their Sauvignon Blancs with an eye to the palates of consumers who have made Chardonnays so sought-after. Our blind tasting of sixty Sauvignon Blancs found overtones of honey and caramel—produced by barrel fermentation—commonplace. The labels also show that more Sauvignon Blancs include some proportion of juice from the Semilion grape—a combination that produces most of the great dry whites of Bordeaux. Together, these innovations tend to blunt the usual characteristics of Sauvignon Blancs by surrounding them with complementary Chardonnay-like flavors. Such news may bring tears to the eyes of purists, but it seems likely at long last to announce Cinderella's emergence from the kitchen into the dining room. The quality of the Sauvignon Blancs is greatly improved. Most of the wines we sampled were remarkably sturdy, clearly defined, and attractive. (All of the wines mentioned here are Sauvignon Blanc unless otherwise noted.)

Perhaps the most striking wine in the tasting was the 1987 Husch ($7.50) from Mendocino County, an elegant, restrained powerhouse packed with rich flavors of melon and lime against a background of tobacco, with a long, dry finish that leaves the mouth coated with spicy extract. From first opening to last sampling eighteen hours later, it stole the tasting with its dazzling balance of intensity and simplicity. Close on its heels was the 1986 Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc Reserve ($15) from the Napa Valley. Its unrestrained grassy/citrus flavors are satisfying and refreshingly tart.

The 1985 Long ($14) from Sonoma County is a symphony of flavors. Starting with a rich nose of grass, it explodes in the mouth with complex and intense, slightly pungent flavors that are well orchestrated and focused. The 1985 Carmenet ($8.75), a blend of 84 percent Sauvignon Blanc and 16 percent Semillon, is crisp with distinctively herbaceous and green-pepper flavors and a wonderfully smoky tinge to the taste. The 1986 Carmenet ($9.50) is even more striking, and was easily the best of the herbaceous tribe in the tasting. It has a sweet, green-pepper nose, is richly herbaceous in the mouth, and has a long finish of green pepper.

New evidence of Texas's wine prowess was provided by the 1988 Llano Estacado ($7). It has a petit grassy nose, and sports vigorous grassy/melon flavors with a lovely citrus/melon finish. Australia also triumphed with the 1987 Wolf Blass South Australia ($10), whose vigorous, complex, grassy/citrus/tobacco nose heralds a wonderfully rich panoply of melon, tobacco, and citrus in the mouth. The 1987 Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc ($9) has a nose of anise, with pungent, mouth-coating tobacco and lemon flavors. Spottswoode's 1987 ($10) is refreshing, clean-tasting, rich with grass and lemon. The delicate and lovely 1987 Clos du Bois Alexander Valley ($8), with 88 percent Sauvignon Blanc and 12 percent Semilion, has a soft, floral nose, with vigorous, medium-bodied grassy/ citrus/tobacco flavors. The bouquet of the 1987 Kendall-Jackson Jackson Vineyard ($12) suggests freshly cut green grass with a crisp lemon aura, which blossoms into a round mouthful of pleasantly pungent tobacco and melon, with a spicy lemon finish. The less expensive, but equally crisp, regular 1987 KendallJackson ($8.75) has a vigorous grassy/ tobacco/citrus kick.

Other high-finishing entries were Buena Vista's 1987 Lake County ($7.50) and 1987 Alexander Valley ($8.50), the 1987 Byron ($8), the 1986 Clos du Bois Proprietor's Reserve ($12), the 1986 Simi ($9), the 1987 Duckhom ($9.50), the 1987 Guenoc Lake County/Napa County ($7.50), the 1985 Lyeth Alexander Valley ($11), the 1986 La Doucette Pouilly Fume ($20), the 1987 J. Rochioli ($9), and the 1987 Arbor Crest ($8.50) from the Columbia Valley in the state of Washington.

Two entrants towered above all of the other lower-priced wines. The 1986 Chatom Fume ($6), from a new winery in California's Calaveras County, was better than many of the more expensive wines. Its rich melon and caramel flavors make it taste surprisingly like a Chardonnay. Eighteen hours after opening, it had a powerful tobacco nose laced with aromas of caramel, followed by vigorous grassy, honey, and tobacco flavors in the mouth. Another bargain is the 1988 R. H. Phillips Night Harvest ($5.49) from Yolo County. It showed full-bodied citrus/grassy and tobacco mouth flavors, and a striking finish of pepper, tobacco, and citrus.