Exclusive offer: 7/22/2022 – One incredible Sauvignon Blanc
This offer is available from Friday, July 22nd at 3:00 pm to Sunday, July 24th at 3:00 pm.
If the offer is still on, you’ll see the order form at the bottom of this page. Completed forms are sent to Solo Vino Wine Shop in St. Paul, MN, for final fulfillment (shipping is available).
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A simple offer this week: one GREAT wine, only available here
Our Friday offers sometimes have a wide range of selections around one theme. Like nine wines from one country, or six expressions of Pinot Noir.
Most of the time, it’s three or four selections, maybe from one producer or a tiny region that is off your radar.
And sometimes, we like to keep it simple and straightforward: here’s ONE wine that will knock your socks off. When we do the ‘one wine’ selections, you can bet your last drops of 1982 Bordeaux that it’s going to be something special.
This week we present an ass-kicking Pouilly-Fumé that is super limited in quantity and at an amazingly good price.
First: What’s the best expression of Sauvignon Blanc?
One of the more fascinating tastings you can do as a student of wine is to taste through a range of Sauvignon Blancs side-by-side, realizing just how wildly different many of them can be.
There are patterns to be found: New Zealand = grapefruit. Chile = lemon rind. Napa = gooseberries.
But then you get to arguably the two top regions for Sauvignon Blanc: Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre, in France’s Loire Valley. It’s here that the details and the nuance often cause people to say, “well, more similar than different, that’s for sure.” And they are right. Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre are like siblings that look and sound alike.
But also, like siblings, each has its own personality.
The difference between Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé
I’m not going to go into details regarding terroir or wine marketing here. If you want to geek out about soil types and appellation names, here’s a great article.
Instead, I want to give you the basics of tasting Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume side-by-side to help explain why I like this week’s wine so much.
When I taste a Sancerre, I expect the flavor profiles to come to a point or an edge. Sancerre, for me, starts with a range of apple-pear-citrus-stone aromas and flavors, and as they roll around in the mouth, they come together to a point that crystallizes in the finish.
Conversely, when I taste a Pouilly-Fumé, for reasons I can’t explain, the flavors of the apple-pear-citrus-stone go wide and broad, with roundness on the acidity in the finish.
Both are great. The differences are subtle. And lately, I’ve been gravitating to Pouilly-Fumé more and more.
Why this wine is particularly special
Three reasons.
First, it’s a 2019 … a WONDERFUL vintage for Sauvignon Blanc in this part of the Loire Valley. It was a cold and wet spring, with bud break and flowering delayed. When June hit, the temperatures rose fast and this caused some vines to shut down naturally and lower yields. By mid-summer, drought conditions led to stressed vines, which gave even more quality to the fruit. In other words, everything came together in 2019 for higher-acid wines that can stand the test of a few years of aging.
Second, because it’s a Pouilly-Fumé, that creaminess and roundness of the acidity played perfectly with the vintage conditions. Many 2019 Sancerres are too sharp for my palate, while the Pouilly-Fumés bring balance into the equation.
Lastly, it’s 93 points from Wine Enthusiast with an advertised price of $50.
What to expect
Light to medium bodied. Great color, very fresh. Aromas of lime zest, minerals, and creamy citrus. Digging deeper in the glass reveals Honeycrisp apple, underripe apricot, and a touch of bell pepper. The taste is broad but strong, with the sound of the opening chords of The Firm’s “Radioactive” coming to mind (I don’t know why but it seems to fit). The taste is complete, harmonious, and steady. Yum!
BUYING and SERVING ADVICE
We have exclusive access to the first offer on this wine in the Twin Cities. The local importer got 15 cases and offered us a price that we couldn’t believe.
Why such a great price? Here’s the insider baseball for you: this importer already has a few Loire Sauvignon Blancs in their portfolio that they can get much more quantity of, and they (smartly) want to focus on those for long-term placements.
They fear this particular wine will get in the way, and since only 180 bottles are available, they don’t want to make a bunch of placements around town only to have it be out of stock with the next order. So they offered it to us.
That’s what our Friday offers are all about!
Jason Kallsen
Sommelier, founder of Twin Cities Wine Education
This offer has ended. Thank you for your interest.
