Planet Grape Wine Review Vodcast - New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

Welcome to Planet Grape Wine Review Podcast. I'm here with Katherine Fallis, Master Sommelier and founder of Planet Grape Wine Review. I'm Deborah Parker Wong, Global Wine Editor. Happy to be here, Katherine. Thank you.

This is fun. Let's taste some great wines. Why is there a sheep, by the way? He's checking us out.

He wants in on the action. Where are we today in the podcast?

Well, so we're talking about green wines today. Green wines encompassing wines that are farmed sustainably, farmed organically, or farmed biodynamically. So that group of wines, you can shorten it to SOB, Sustainable, Organic, Biodynamic. Why not? Some people even use that on their wine list as a way of coding, SOB, coding the wines. There's another category that we're not talking about today, which is kind of in this grouping, which is called natural wines, but that's a whole other discussion because those really aren't in any official categories, so to speak, as of yet.

Right.

So we're going to be tasting 3 wines. Sustainable farming is very, very kind of much of a holistic approach where we're thinking about not just the humans, not just the animals, not just the soil, but the whole environment and how everybody interacts and trying to keep it a natural chain of things where our impact doesn't really have a negative impact on the animals or the soil and vice versa. So Kind of that circular, holistic approach. And the three wines we're tasting today are all certified sustainable, so we'll talk about that. Fantastic.

So we have the sustainable slide up. So would we like to start the first one?

Are you saying you're ready? No, I'm ready to drink.

You've got it. Absolutely.

So the first wine is from New Zealand, one of my favorite countries in the world, and it's called Yalens Sauvignon Blanc. But it is a single block, it's the S1 single vineyard, and this is in the Au Lattari Valley in Marlborough. So Marlborough, very famous. And you're looking at this vineyard on the slide, it's right over the coast. It's literally when, if the sheep went a little bit too far, they would fall down to the beach about 100 feet down. Don't do that! Don't do that. And so there's that in the name, don't do that either.

You can see the bay from the vineyard, absolutely.

You can not only see it, you smell it, you feel it, just like we do here in California, many of our coastal vineyards. And the whole environment here is incredibly holistic, and they're certified by the New Zealand Wine Growers. And so this is one of those wines that just to me is so evocative of its site. It's a single coastal vineyard. And I think you can kind of, when you're smelling and tasting this, It's not your typical New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Well, it's very pungent, that's for sure. It's really pronounced in aroma profile, which is fantastic. So that's an identifier. I know where I am in the world.

You know where you are, but it's not, you know, banging you over the head with that.

Oh, absolutely. It's very floral, a lot of fruit.

And a nice chalkiness as well, along with a little bit of lemongrass. What did I write about this? I've got a review of this one.

Oh, I put the slide up there.

A little bit of tarragon in there, a little bit of lemon zest, guava.

Absolutely guava, for sure. It's really, it's the first thing that strikes me is the tropical fruit.

Absolutely. Yeah, and so this is an example of sustainable wine growing. We've got another sustainable wine, this one from California, and this is a rosé, which is, you know, year-round now. It's good all year round, and it's a Rhône blend with a twist, and the twist is Picpoul Blanc added to Grenache and Mourvèdre.

And this Picpoul Blanc, one of my favorite varieties from the Languedoc, from southern France, the lip stinger.

The lip stinger.

Where did you find that on the Central Coast?

Well, this is actually from the Adelaida District within Paso Robles.

Limestone.

And so yeah, so who, you know, Rosé, again, oh, there's so many Rosés on the market right now, and there's so many unfortunately not very good Rosés on the market right now. Because, you know, it's such a popular category. And again, I want to recommend to you, everyone out there putting a wine list together, your beverage program, you want small, you know, smaller production wines where you can, where it makes sense for you, where you can logistically find them. This is Halter Ranch. And when we talked about sustainable farming, I had the SIP certified image up there.

Let's look at that slide.

Yeah, so SIP Certified is one of California's sustainable farming certification programs.

Oh, let's see, we've got Sustainable Farming, and this is SIP. We showed this one.

So the SIP Certified is one of our sustainability in practice certifications in California, very, very popular. And so you want to make sure there is something on the back of the bottle that certifies that the wine is farmed sustainably. Before we taste this, let's look at our next 2 slides and Let's look at the organic farming. And so this is another category to look at. Organic farming is talking about clean farming. So we're not talking about synthetic inputs, right? So we're not talking about necessarily the environment, the people, the resources, how much water you're using or power or anything like that. It's simply clean natural farming.

Organic farming does allow things like copper and sulfur into the vineyard though.

They, they do. And so synthetic inputs We, you know, this is a global discussion. California has its own certification which allows certain things to be labeled.

Yes, CCOF.

And so whatever, when you hear the word organic, just look at the back label and see who is the certification and see if it's just organically farmed or organically farmed and organically produced, because these are separate certifications.

Right, quite often you'll see made with organically grown grapes, but that's a Boosts confidence, I think, for a consumer purchasing a wine.

And it's just something, you know, the consumer hears the word organic, they're already, you know, happy. But for you in the trade to know, dig a little bit deeper and make sure you have a qualifier on the back label and you know exactly what you're getting.

Well, let's look at this final slide.

And then the final tier, if you would, some consider it the highest tier.

The apex of sustainable wine.

And it's certainly the oldest, other than the Farmer's Almanac, biodynamics, working with the sun and the moon and There's our little sheep. There he is. Hi. So we're working with the animales. Shannon Ridge has sheep eating the leaves to do leaf thinning.

Right, for leafing.

Sure.

So this is Demeter.

So Demeter is one of the global certification options. And there's zero tolerance for anything added. No additives whatsoever.

But they have their own preparations and things that they use that are all Botanically-based preparations and things like that.

Yes, so you're being nice. They put cow poop in a calendar. Yeah, well, not tableside language, but—

It's all down to Mother Nature, right? Absolutely. But it follows the lunar calendar, which I appreciate.

It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's very, very cool. It's, you know, all of these things are good for the environment. In some cases, they're good for the people, and they're good for the plants and the animals. The whole system. And so you're just getting a cleaner, greener wine, if you will, and this is a win-win for everyone.

Absolutely. So, and this is the Halter Ranch Rosé.

And so it's a lovely kind of full-bodied California Rosé. It's a little bit richer than a Provençal Rosé. It's got that California.

It has something from Côte de Provence, It's going to be lighter. This is a little, has a little more weight, a little more dry extract, a little more structure, we might say.

Yeah, so it's easy to pair, it's easy to have on its own as a cocktail. A nice Central Coast Rosé, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and a little bit of that, my favorite, Picol de Pinot, the lip stinger.

Yeah, can't get enough of that. All right.

And then our third wine, we're returning to New Zealand one more time. New Zealand does a lot of sustainable farming, And their certifying sticker we showed you, the New Zealand sustainable farming. And so this is actually a lovely red wine. Now Villa Maria is a larger brand, a brand that certainly has a lot of wine in the supermarkets. Certainly of their private bin tier of wines, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, this is a smaller lot wine. It's from Hawke's Bay, not Marlborough.

So we're in the North Island. Yeah, North Island.

So we're in the warmer part of the country.

Are we again like Gravels?

Or are we just Hawke's Bay? We're close, we're very close. For this particular wine, we're, you know, just Hawke's Bay, larger appellation. And this is a blend, every year it's slightly different. This is not only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as they have every year, but this year has a little bit of Malbec as well. So depending on the vintage—

I think you can see the Malbec in there, it's quite purpley. Really, the Malbec's adding some nice color.

And there's that little violet kind of chocolate note that you get from Argentina. But you know, Hawke's Bay is a very unique part of the world, as is, you know, Marlborough and the parts of South Island. Everything in New Zealand is totally unique, and I love the fact that this has the New World richness and ripeness and plushness, and that bright fruit.

Oh my gosh, it's so bright on the palate. The acid is really driving the mid-palate here and really pushing, you know, extending the length and the finish of the wine. Delicious, I love it, it's so lively. You're certainly not going to feel tired after drinking a glass of this wine.

So even in this warmer area of New Zealand, up in North Island, Hawke's Bay, really warm, you can ripen Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec, Merlot. It's still got a tart, dry finish from high natural acid. And that is the beauty of these wines, not only for my personal enjoyment and my weird palate, but for food. So this makes it great at table, easy to take another bite of your dish. Perfect for a barbecue. Showcases the food, makes the food taste better, if that's possible, because we know all of you chefs are doing—

Working very hard.

The utmost with your food.

Absolutely.

But these are nice and clean. They're green. They're a great choice, and they should definitely be on your radar. They're beautifully priced as well. And if you're looking for something for staff training, I recommend my latest book, which is 10 Grapes to Know. It's a really kind of fun but but informative guide to 10 grapes, and it's been really well received, especially by the younger, you know, your servers, your bartenders, your folks that are not studying wine.

Well, you have dating advice in there as well too, right?

I have dating advice in there.

That's the reception.

And there are celebrities attached to every grape.

Yes, and there's really fun profiles on the grapes as well too. So a lot of humor and kind of modern context for the Yes. For the whole enjoyment of wine and enjoyment of what we're here doing today.

Yes.

Well, thanks Catherine for having me today. We're here with Planet Grape Wine Review Podcast number 2. Cheers!

Cheers! And cheers to our little sheep.

Hi!

Okay, Tabitha.