Sauvignon Smackdown

"A German and an Austrian walk into a wine tasting."  Nope that's not the intro to my latest wine joke; rather it describes the recent Sauvignon Blanc Smackdown at Vievinum, Austria's wine expo.  Wine merchant Jan-Erik Paulson and Austrian chef, Reinhard Gerer hosted this Sauvi-Blanc blind tasting, comprised of 53 wine journalists from 27 countries (and no, I wasn't invited *sniff*).  Is there such a thing as home court-tasting advantage?  Perhaps.  In any event, Austria flexed its white wine muscle in the 'recent vintage' ('04/'05) competition.  Five of the top 10 young S.B. were from Austria.  Andi Kollwentz (whom I visited; and interviewed) scored the top spot with his Steinmühle 2004 Sauvignon Blanc.  Two Kiwis nabbed the 2nd and 3rd spots (Palliser Estate '05 & Saint Clair Bloc 3 '05, respectively).  The rest of the results:

#4.  Pouilly Fumé La Demoiselle de Bourgeois 2004 Domaine Henri Bourgeois, France
#5.  Sauvignon blanc 2004 Andreas Tscheppe, Austria
#6.  Sauvignon blanc Martinborough 2005 Dog Point, New Zealand
#7.  Sauvignon blanc 2005 Cloudy Bay, New Zealand
#8.  Sauvignon blanc Hochgrassnitzberg 2004 Polz, Austria
#9.  Sauvignon blanc Steinbach 2005 Lachner-Tinnacher, Austria
#10.  Sauvignon blanc Sernauberg 2005 Sattlerhof, Austria

Austria also grabbed the top spot in the 'older vintages' ('00-'03) category with Neumeister's Moarfeitl '01 Sauvignon Blanc (listen to my interview with Chris Neumeister here).  I was pleasantly surprised that a few of my favorite wineries ranked in the top 10 with their mature S.Blanc: Sabathi Merveilleux '03 (#3), Tement Zieregg '00 (#5), Gross Ratscher Nussberg '00 (#7) [listen to my interview with Weingut Gross] and Sattlerhoff (bravo Willi!) Privat '00 (#10).  See the complete results here.

The take home message:  Seek out Austrian Sauvignon Blanc; it's extraordinary (at least according to my taste buds).  Two importers who specialize in Austrian Sauvignon are Winemonger & Vin DiVino.  Perhaps, I should compare New Zealand Sauvignon in greater detail.  Who's up for NZWA - the New Zealand Wine Adventure - (Enzee Waa)?  Anyone?  Anyone?..

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