What style should SA Savignon Blanc take?

Do we look to the traditional Loire examples to inform our production of Sauvignon Blanc, or to the more seductive and powerful examples of the New World typified by New Zealand? Fiona McDonald reports. Illustrations by Kian Eriksen.

 

For WINE magazine's 10th anniversary we revisited the 11 wines that have scored 5 Star ratings in our pages. While a few were showing their age, one in particular surprised the tasters with its longevity: Klein Constantia's 1986 Sauvignon Blanc. In the panel's opinion, it was still worthy of its world-class ranking.

The colour was still bright lemon yellow, not the brassy gold that tasters were anticipating. Aromas of asparagus and figgy gooseberries were still prominent, but it was the palate that was a thing of joy - still fresh and lively, courtesy of the natural acidity typical of this grape. Yes, there were some tertiary, vaguely loamy, fungal flavours, but it was a wine that still had a few years of life in it.

This got us thinking about the differences in styles of New World and Old World Sauvignon Blanc. After all, the 1986 was the first Sauvignon Blanc made by Klein Constantia's Ross Gower, who was fresh from a year or two in New Zealand and used grapes from newly planted young vines.

Interesting then, Gower's comments after tasting the 2003 crop of Sauvignon Blanc for WINE: he was pretty even-handed in his insults of both top French and New Zealand producers! "Didier Dagueneau's wine is overpriced and rubbish…. I had Cloudy Bay's 2001 Sauvignon Blanc recently and it was a shocker. Their standards have dropped over the past few years."

Steenberg's John Loubser is responsible for WINE's top rated 2003 Sauvignon Blanc - and the only 5 Star wine of its kind in the 2004 edition of the Platter guide.
"The best Sauvignons are not made in the cellar but rather in the vineyard. Go back to the '80s and the only outstanding local example which springs to mind is the 1986 Klein Constantia. Clearly a terroir wine - no fancy cellar tricks - and comparable to the wines of the Loire.

"At around the same time - mid-80s - an unknown winemaker from New Zealand by the name of Kevin Judd started producing what soon became the world's best known New World Sauvignon Blanc - Cloudy Bay from Marlborough.

"He's the father of New World Sauvignon Blanc, combining for the first time the perfect cool terroir site with modern reductive winemaking techniques.

"This transformed a good aromatic Sauvignon Blanc into a huge, pungent world benchmark as his technique essentially magnified the fruit and Sauvignon expression to another level.

"For the first time techniques like skin contact, use of ascorbic acid and carbon dioxide and ice cold fermentation in stainless steel tanks were employed with resounding success."

Loubser said it was this approach that took the world by storm and led to the world domination by Kiwi Sauvignons in the early '90s.

He believes the man who successfully introduced reductive winemaking to South Africa was Mulderbosch's charismatic Mike Dobrovic. With Dobrovic leading the way, more and more local fans of this aromatic grape began making wine reductively - rather than oxidatively.

"There was a huge surge in the quality of South African Sauvignon Blanc," says Loubser, "especially when the fruit came from a cool climate area."

That's something Walker Bay winemaker Bartho Eksteen agrees with wholeheartedly: the importance of cool climate grapes.

For the past 10 years this tall, bearded, extremely passionate Sauvignon Blanc producer has held an annual tasting of the best local and international examples.
Interestingly enough, another 1986 was voted the top wine at Eksteen's 10th annual Sauvignon Blanc celebration last year - the 1986 Didier Dagueneau Silex from Sancerre… the producer maligned by Gower!

First held in 1992 when he was starting out at Walker Bay operation, Wildekrans, the celebration began as a way of benchmarking his Sauvignon Blanc against other local producers and selected imports.

"It was borne out of nothing and just snowballed!" he admits. "Now I get fellow producers phoning me up and asking for their wines to be included in the tasting. It's great."

Mad about Sauvignon Blanc, Eksteen admits that not only have his ideas changed but the standard of South African Sauvignon Blanc has improved dramatically - especially when tasted against top international examples. (See table on pg 28 for ranking of wines tasted at his last event.)

Earlier this year one of the world's foremost wine authorities, Jancis Robinson, judged at the 2003 Fairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show. She commented that South Africans tended to make New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc "and the problem is that New Zealand makes great New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc! There were some very odd flavours on them - a lot of sweaty armpit character. I would have preferred some more lightly floral examples and there weren't enough with minerally character. I got lots of canned asparagus… but if you're going to have asparagus, at least have fresh asparagus!" (It's worth remembering though that most of the wines entered in this competition were from the 2002 vintage. Judged in May, the Trophy Wine Show was too early to assess the 2003 crop.)

Fellow 2003 Trophy Wine Show judge James Halliday observed: "While your wines are not as voluptuously scented and bursting with varietal fruit as those of New Zealand, their structure is very often similar to something from the Loire."

Eksteen concedes that he too used to chase after those "wispelturige" (fickle) aromas typical of New Zealand examples from the early '90s.

"I've calmed down… it shows how you change with age. Now a great Sauvignon Blanc for me must have good mouthfeel and balance of fruit and acid. It mustn't just be this overblown huge nose that doesn't deliver what the aromas promise. It's about elegance on the palate - and if you get a good nose with it, that's a bonus."

Durbanville Hills winemaker Martin Moore agrees. A fan of Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc with its typical flinty/gunsmoke/ mineral flavours, Moore says he has yet to taste a Kiwi example that gives him goosebumps.

"That sweaty armpit nose makes me gag. Sauvignon Blanc should be about balance. You've got to keep your feet on the ground - because that's where the grapes are!
"Minerality is the starting point for me - then you build up other flavours through blending in various tanks from specific vineyard blocks which show unique characteristics."

Not afraid of controversy, Moore says it's easy making Sauvignon Blanc if you don't know what you're doing. "You can get great yeasts that give you all the aromatics you want."

The acid test for Moore is what the wine tastes like after three to five years. "So many won't make the grade because they have this great nose but no fruit. They haven't got the guts to go the distance."

UK publisher of Wine International and prolific author Robert Joseph is outspoken about South African wines. In an article commissioned for WINE magazine's Pocket Guide 2004 he writes that Sauvignon Blanc is, in his opinion, "South Africa's most successful white style."

He singles out Mulderbosch, Springfield and boutique producer Mooiplaas for doing much to attune foreigners to South Africa's Sauvignon potential.

Fellow prolific author, wine critic and TV celeb Oz Clarke believes South Africa makes the "best value for money Sauvignon Blanc in the world."

"I know a lot of people say this but with Sauvignon Blanc it's true," says Moore. "We aren't 100% New World or Old World. We are right in the middle - and I believe that gives us an opportunity to make something uniquely South African. We can take a bit of the best of both worlds…"

Loubser disagrees, averring that SA is a firmly New World style producer, second only to New Zealand. "Neither Australia nor California have quite grasped this successful approach to making Sauvignon Blanc and of course the Loire producers don't feel they need to!

"What is interesting is that Cloudy Bay has, with its niche market Te Koko Sauvignon Blanc, adopted a traditional (French) style … using wild yeast, minimal sulphur dioxide, barrel fermentation and sur lies…"

The last word goes to WINE's Sauvignon Blanc panel chairman and Cape Wine Master Tony Mossop: "I'm not a fan of the Kiwi stuff - I far prefer South African Sauvignon because it's more expressive and a better drink overall. I had a Calitzdorp Sauvignon Blanc recently - it's never going to be a contender for a 4 or 5 Star rating, but it was bloody nice and very drinkable."

So overall, whether our top producers pursue the aromatic and reductive New World style (Steenberg and Mulderbosch) or the traditional French or Old World methods (Springfield) South African consumers can rest assured that the best examples are very good.