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04/12/2001 Archived Entry: "Wine Buy: Horse Heaven Sauvignon Blanc"

Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, Horse Heaven Vineyard 1999, which is produced by Chateau Ste. Michelle, a famous Washington State winery, is a Sauvignon Blanc for those who don’t love Sauvignon Blanc.

I got the feeling that Carol Berman, Food Talk sommelier, was somewhat offended by that observation when I made it, but it has proved true. The night after the Wine Buy of the Week segment, I served the wine to Erica Marcus, the food writer from Newsday (who also happens to be my cousin and friend) and she said, not knowing about my comments on the radio, “I really like this, and I don’t usually like Sauvignon Blanc.” Conversely, Adam Rappaport, senior editor of GQ, who was in the radio studio with me when Carol introduced us to the wine, said off the air “You’re right. I love Sauvignon Blanc but I don’t really like this one.” Adam Sachs, a GQ writer who was also in the studio on wine day, actually thought the wine was sweet and liked it for that quality. He mistook the wine's ripe roundness, good fruit, and hints of vanilla from a full year of oak aging as sweetness.

Personally, I like the wine for its own sake, but I don’t think it is a good expression of the grape, Sauvignon Blanc, which yields very refreshing white wines with strong mineral notes when grown in the Loire Valley of France (Sancerre, for instance), a wine that often has strong herbaceous qualities when grown in California, and a wine with wonderful citrus flavors when made in New Zealand, the growing country that has lately made a splash (pardon the pun) with this grape. Indeed, the Horse Heaven Sauvignon Blanc is not pure Sauvignon Blanc. It is blended with some Semillion. It retails for about $11.99.