Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is what most people mean when they ask for “something crisp and dry”. Lime, grapefruit, cut grass, white flowers, and a mouth-watering finish that resets the palate. In Singapore it is the natural white: chilli crab, steamed fish, green mango salad, goat’s cheese — it handles all of them.

Looking for a Sauvignon Blanc? Its homeland is Sancerre.

Not one bottle on this page has the words “Sauvignon Blanc” on the label — and that is exactly the point. The grape’s home is the eastern Loire, on hills of flint and chalk called Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, and those two names are the ones you learn instead. This is where the grape stops being a fruit bowl and starts being a wine: less tropical, more stone.

• Sancerre “Le Tournebride”, Domaine Vincent Gaudry — a biodynamic grower on the flinty slopes above the Loire, farming for purity and mineral tension rather than volume. This is the bottle to buy if you want to know what Sauvignon Blanc actually is.
• Pouilly-Fumé, Ladoucette and Pouilly-Fumé Petit Fumé, Michel Redde — Sancerre’s neighbour across the river. Same grape, more flint, more smoke.
• Menetou-Salon Blanc, Domaine Jean Teiller — a certified-organic estate in Sancerre’s quieter neighbour. The value pick of the page, and no compromise at all.
• Baron de L, Ladoucette — the prestige Pouilly-Fumé, made only in the vintages that deserve it.
• Château Carbonnieux Blanc — the other French home for the grape: Pessac-Léognan in Bordeaux, where Sauvignon Blanc is blended with Sémillon and raised in barrel. Broader, waxier, built to age.

Which one, if you only buy one

If you have been drinking New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and want to see where it came from, take the Menetou-Salon from Teiller with a plate of seafood; it costs less than most supermarket Marlborough and tastes like it comes from somewhere. When you want the real lesson, open the Sancerre from Gaudry.

Free delivery on 6 bottles or more, anywhere in Singapore. See also the Loire Valley and organic & biodynamic wines.