Napa Sauvignon Blanc is Having a Moment in Napa

Sauvignon blanc is having a moment in Napa Valley, California. In fact, according to the Silicon Valley Bank’s 2023 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report, sauvignon blanc was the only non-sparkling wine grape to experience positive growth in the past year. Any red, let alone white wine is in the shadow of America’s finest wine, Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, so the discussion of a sophisticated new American sauvignon blanc style in 2023 is exciting.

Where Does Sauvignon Blanc Come From?

Sauvignon blanc grapes photo credit Mars Lasar

Sauvignon derives from “sauvage”, or “wild”, and is also the “mother” of cabernet sauvignon. In fact, old records list these two as sauvignon blanc, and sauvignon. In some cases, under-ripe or just barely ripe cabernet sauvignon shows a little of mom’s green or grassy character.

France is the historic birthplace of sauvignon blanc. From the Loire Valley south of Paris we see smoky, flinty pouilly fumé and from across the river, subtle, lemony tart Sancerre. Both are grown in rocky soils in a very cool climate. This is sauvignon blanc at its least ripe, and most minerally. Sauvignon blanc plays a minor role in both dry white Bordeaux and Sauternes, the sweet wine of the area. Both of those are commonly based on the richer, rounder and more neutrally flavored semillon grape, which benefits greatly from sauvignon blanc’s lithe and zestiness.

Climate Matters

Gamble Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc at sunrise photo credit Mars Lasar

While cool climate and limited sunshine there certainly plays a role in style, each clone used has unique characters. Clone 530 and sauvignon musque from the Loire Valley and Clone 316 and Preston from Graves just south of the city of Bordeaux are all in use at Gamble Family Vineyards in Napa Valley, a producer leading the revolution in producing contemporary, sophisticated sauvignon blanc there.

Warmer climates sometimes yield more interesting, if non-traditional wine styles. Just as malbec has reached its fullest potential not in Bordeaux or Cahors in the south of France but rather on the sunny, snow-covered terraces of Mendoza, Argentina, so too has cool but extremely sunny New Zealand birthed a wine so wildly popular it has changed the landscape. Marlborough, New Zealand has absolutely nailed sauvignon blanc. Its iconic “rainbow” style was pioneered by Cloudy Bay winemaker Kevin Judd, who had no idea his blend of under-ripe green and super-ripe tropical flavors would take the world by storm. He had the idea of blending in the green, tart early picked wine his crew loved so much to with fruit picked just ripe as well as some that was overripe and tropical. It is common to find varying levels of ripeness within the vineyards at the same time due to the variety of soil types. This lean, racy, zesty, tropical, bold and showy style has the world’s wine drinkers enthralled, for the most part.

Style Choices

For those that are not, winemakers can dial back on these opulent flavors, both the tropical passion fruit and pineapple, and sauvignon blanc’s signature zesty green and herbaceous notes. Quality-conscious producers abroad and in Napa Valley, such as Tom Gamble are focusing on textural elements they can manipulate using winemaking techniques such as stirring the lees/yeast sediment and aging in barrel. Most of the New Zealand sauvignon blanc on the market never sees oak. Zesty green vegetal flavors and oak are very antagonistic – oak can elevate the pungent greenness to a point where they clash. However, if the output of the vine is lower than normal – say your tomato plant gave you 20 small tomatoes rather than 40 – each resulting fruit is more flavorful and complex. Take this complex fruit, age for a short time in neutral older oak – no need for oak vanillas or chewy barrel tannins – and the wine stretches out and breathes a little, becoming more mellow and creamy, less edgy.

At the beginning of the modern California wine era, sauvignon blanc was made as a nondescript semi-sweet wine. Later, a popular style of Napa Valley sauvignon blanc - ripened well past any zesty, grassiness to apricot, peach, mango and pineapple, then fermented and aged in oak, rode as close as possible to the much loved creamy, opulent Napa Valley chardonnay.

Pioneering Napa Valley visionary Robert Mondavi, who had traveled the world to understand its greatest wines, decided to make a dry sauvignon blanc, which he called fumé blanc, a reference to pouilly fumé. The word “fumé” has two translations from French. One is “smoky” implying strong gunflint minerality and the other is ‘toasty” implying the flavors and textures of new toasted oak barrels.

In addition to his fumé blanc, Mr. Mondavi also produced limited amounts of Fumé Blanc Reserve Tokalon I-Block Napa Valley, a decadently rich, creamy, toasty, and full-bodied wine from 54-year old vines, and one of the country’s finest.

Third-generation grape grower Tom Gamble, whose family of ranchers and farmers arrived in Napa in 1916, planted Gamble Family Vineyards in 2005. He disliked most of the local sauvignon blanc at the time, Mr. Mondavi’s aside, while starting to taste Loire and Bordeaux versions. Twenty years later, from a block at the center of his Yountville estate, his dream of making a “really great” sauvignon blanc has come true. In addition to producing these wines with his team of Philippe Melka and Mayaan Koschitzky, he makes limited quantities of this fruit available to Benoit Touquette at Realm Cellars, Julian Fayard at Covert Estate, Thomas Rivers Brown at Riverain Vineyards, Andy Erikson at Favia and a select handful of others.

Philippe Melka says, “It’s a story of terroir, the vineyard, the soil, the aspect, the climate. We have the sun unlike Europe. If you harvest at the right time, you get boxwood, passion fruit, grapefruit, and cassis. These days we have better clones, closer spacing, and we are picking earlier.” That sounds like the magic formula for sophisticated, grand cru American sauvignon blanc.

Recommended Napa Sauvignon Blanc

2022 Gamble Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Gamble Family Yountville

13.4%, 750 ml, $44

Mid-weight, fresh, crisp and dry with notes of yellow apple, cantaloupe, mango and dried herbs.

2018 Gamble Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Heart Block Yountville

12.8%, 750 ml, $95

Very elegant and understated blend of Musque and Preston clones. Light, fresh and dry with notes of lemon curd, honeycomb, citrus blossom and almond croissant.