Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc 2010, South Africa

The spiritual home of Sauvignon Blanc may be in the Loire Valley, but then this wild savage of a grape decided that it had had enough of the confinements of French viticulture and their appellations and it wanted to discover itself and go InterRailing. 

California, Chile, Brazil, and Australia all beckoned, but this grape made it’s most notable impact in New Zealand where the cool maritime climate and terroir suited this grape to such an extent that critics from around the world were soon lauding SB from NZ. New found fame for this wild child.

“Fame won’t change me”, cried the grape!

Yeah right.

OK, I’m not suggesting that Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand is a poor wine, it’s merely that I’ve got a tiny bit bored with the formulaic expression of this varietal. Moreover, as more of it has flooded our shores there has, in my view, been an occasional dip in quality.

SB is usually a safe bet for a refreshment trolley of dubious provenance, but our InterRailing friend is an exemplar of how overconfidence, complacency and the fickle nature of taste can collide.

Lucky for us then that this grape jumped on the next train to South Africa, where it found a new home at the foot of Babylon’s Tower, not far from the spa town of Caledon. You might recall that the Tower of Babel, from the Book of Genesis, is a salutary tale of how God gets a tad ticked off if you get a little too cocksure. How germane and yet, I suspect, overconfidence is not a trait you’ll find at the Seven Springs vineyard.

When you step foot on South African soil for the first time you can tell from the aroma and the quality of light that you have arrived in an altogether different place. This sense of otherness is echoed in this SB wine that I guarantee you won’t have tasted before. So, forget what you think you know about this oh so familiar and prosaic varietal and get ready for something a little special. 

From the first taste you can tell that this is a wine made with love rather than one made merely to turn a profit and extract as much product from the grapes as possible. It’s a pale straw colored wine with an aroma that I can only describe as a delicate caress of citrus. As I put my nose further into the glass I caught a cheeky whiff of peach then it was apple and yet another sniff had me sensing citrus again. It was as if my nose had leapt onto some fruity carousel. 

If it was good on the nose, it’s even better in the mouth with a rollicking mixture of fruit and mouth filling tropical flavors with a beguiling finish that has me thinking of grapefruit. Not that the finish could last very long because I just couldn’t wait to take another swig. 

All in all this wine restored my faith in SB and it stands as a testament to how Old World varieties are taking on a New World lease of life.  Ask for this wine by name at your local merchant or visit the Seven Springs website.