N°1 Sauvignon Blanc

Lively and vibrant, a nice push of peach, apricot, lemon and lime with crisp green apple. Creamy and soft, a gentle expression, but really works with enough acidity to be appealing and weight to give more of a gourmet feel. Lovely cool expression. So drinkable.

White peach, pineapple, fleshy juice and grip, this is enjoyable and easy to approach, with character. An impressively consistent performance from a challenging vintage for white Bordeaux.

How the world fell in love with sauvignon blanc The true original home of sauvignon blanc is 1,000s of miles from Marlborough, Elgin and Atacama in western France, with producers in both the Loire and the Bordeaux making the case for their region as the grape variety’s birthplace. Examples from the Loire are generally easier to find in the UK, with recent favourites of mine ranging in price from £8.99 (the bustling gooseberry of Waitrose Blueprint Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2021) to £24 (the cool-stream-over-stone rush of fresh citrus and blackcurrant fruit in Gerard et Pierre Morin Sancerre 2021 at robersonwine.com). In Bordeaux, dry white winemaking has tended to be overshadowed by the region’s great red wines, and the habit has in any case been to blend sauvignon with semillon, both in the many magnificent but undervalued oak-aged dry wines and the golden sweet dessert wines of Sauternes and Barsac. Increasingly, however, winemakers have bowed to global demand for 100% sauvignons, and Dourthe ’s super-bright and tangy example is one of the most consistently refreshing sauvignons around.

Wines of the week : Sauvignon blanc has made itself at home the world over, finds David Williams The true home of sauvignon blanc is in western France, with producers in both the Loire and Bordeaux making the casefor their region as the grape variety’s birthplace. Examples from the Loire are easierto findin the UK,with recent favourites of mine ranging from £8.99 (the bustling gooseberry of Waitrose Blueprint Touraine Sauvignon Blanc2021) to £24 (the coolstream-over-stone rush of Gerardet Pierre Morin Sancerre 2021 at robersonwine.com). In Bordeaux, dry white winemaking has tended to be overshadowed by the region’s great reds, and the habit has inany case been to blend sauvignon with semillon. Increasingly, however, winemakers have bowed to global demand for 100% sauvignons, and Dourthe’s tangy example is one of the most refreshing around.

Clean, fresh, intense, crisp and bright with nettles, redcurrant leaf, citron pressé and white grapefruit; a hint of elderflower. Rapier-like on the palate with a bright lift and lots of fresh fruit-charged forward momentum. Pure, precise and with decent intensity too.

Nose shows clean gooseberry and white stone fruit, with a hint of passionfruit. On the palate, it is quite juicy, dry, with an appealing freshness. Not complex, and for immediate drinking, but excellent value from this ever-reliable producer.

Notre sélection de bordeaux blancs pour les fêtes.Dourthe n°1 fut une des premières cuvées à avoir lancé le sauvignon variétal de l’Entre-deux-Mers et en a fixé la norme avec un standard élevé de droiture et de pureté. La version 2022 est toujours dans le même style, mais avec un raisin un peu plus mûr, ce qui lui donne un peu plus de fond.