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Now I never thought I would find myself enthusing about a Napa Valley Sauvignon - which just shows how blinkered I am. Most Napa Sauvignons I find too heavy, sweet and oily with an uncomfortably low refreshment quotient. But this particular wine, of which only 440 cases were made apparently, is quite different - presumably because it was grown on quite steep hillside vineyards rather than the valley floor.
It smells of ripe figs and is indeed pretty weighty but is wonderfully taut and minerally on the palate in the way that a top quality Condrieu is (see your turn correspondence). I was sent a bottle of this out of the blue, tasted it as usual but instead of consigning it to my overloaded out tray as I do with the vast majority of wines I taste, I stuck it in the refrigerator and kept going back to it over the next four or five days. It was still tasting delicious at the end - not oily but with a beautifully rounded texture.
It's worth pointing out however that this is definitively not like a Loire or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc - being a heavyweight and with some obvious oaking (10 months in 50 per cent new French barriques) to boot, it's more of a Pavillon Blanc or Pessac Léognan. So if you hate that style, steer clear of this one, made from cuttings from the Spottswoode winery nearby planted in the late 1980s.
Alas most of you will be forced to steer clear of it anyway as it is hardly widely available. (My apologies - but I wanted to set the record straight about my feelings about California Sauvignon Blanc.) It is listed at $28.
You could also try:
springmountainvineyard.com
Spring Mountain, on the western hillsides above St Helena, supplied some of the very first wine we imported for L'Escargot restaurant when Nick re-opened it in 1981 but has changed hands and reputations since then. I seem to remember it was the setting for a soap opera or movie...? |
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