New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc Vs Alto Adige Sauvignon Blanc

Do me a favor.

This weekend, in the event you’re looking for wine or a restaurant wine listing or contemplating the wines you will have at house, select one grape after which select two bottles of wine made out of that grape in several components of the world. Ideally they’d be from the identical classic however no stress in the event that they aren’t.

Preserve it easy. Two wines from the identical grape, every in its personal glass, facet by facet.

Arrange these two bottles (or two glasses in the event you’re in a restaurant) for a “examine and distinction” experiment, which is likely one of the three participating and entertaining pathways for enthusiastic customers to find out about wine shortly. As I wrote in a post earlier this week, the compare-and-contrast technique is a part of an extended lineage of efficient studying instruments: we examine and distinction two comparable however various things as a way to hone our understanding, spotlight essential particulars and scale back confusion between associated concepts.

Malbec and the Rhône varietals (specifically syrah, grenache and mourvèdre) are nice alternatives for this, particularly in the event you’ve acquired one instance from the Previous World and one instance from the New World. At this time, nevertheless, I’d wish to concentrate on sauvignon blanc.

My inspiration for this comes immediately from a tasting a couple of weeks in the past, performed nearly and hosted by the Vini Alto Adige commerce affiliation, of 4 examples of white wines from the Alto Adige area of northern Italy, together with kerner, pinot grigio, a mix (predominantly pinot bianco, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc), and a one hundred pc sauvignon blanc from Colterenzio, a cooperative of about 300 households in South Tyrol.

Despite the fact that its composition is one hundred pc sauvignon blanc, this final wine was described as “not precisely sauvignon blanc.” Why? As a result of it’s sauvignon blanc from Alto Adige. That’s against, say, sauvignon blanc from New Zealand.

The distinction of these two origins set the stage completely for a examine and distinction experiment. If there’s a white wine that’s broadly out there commercially, and likewise recognizable for its constant profile of aromatics and ranges of acidity and alcohol, sauvignon blanc from New Zealand simply tops the listing.

To be clear: there are extraordinary, distinct examples of this wine, made out of particular person producers who very a lot convey their distinctive strategy to grape rising and winemaking by the canvas of sauvignon blanc. But when we had been to line up six white wines which might be broadly out there available on the market, and invite enthusiastic customers to odor and style these six wines blind, I’d guess cash that the majority tasters would be capable to establish the sauvignon blanc from New Zealand.

Which is precisely what makes the examine and distinction experiment with the sauvignon blanc from Alto Adige so attention-grabbing, and likewise so instructive in case your goal is to study extra about wine shortly.

Listed below are three issues to check and distinction in regards to the two glasses in entrance of you.

Worldwide vs Indigenous Grapes

One of many first issues to note in regards to the distinction is that, for the simple recognition within the market of sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, sauvignon blanc from Alto Adige is arguably its industrial reverse.

A part of this dialog is the predominant nature of worldwide grape varieties — comparable to cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, riesling and chardonnay — and their en masse adoption and recognition in wine areas world wide. I consider Italy as a haven by comparability for small-scale, “un-en-masse” indigenous grapes; see, for instance, my article from a few years ago about the 1,671 reasons why we’ll never be bored by Italian wine.

It isn’t that worldwide grape varieties are scarce in Italy. (One considered Tremendous Tuscans presents an instantaneous argument towards that concept.) It’s extra that Italy’s embrace of its indigenous grapes, and its near-stubborn refusal to relinquish a lot of them to worldwide market forces and client demand, provides to the cultural and historic variations “behind the glasses” of the 2 sauvignon blancs in entrance of you.

Scale

Any dialog about worldwide vs indigenous grape varieties wants to contemplate the query of scale, and these two sauvignon blancs supply a wonderful illustration. The complete area of Alto Adige, for instance, accounts for lower than one % of Italy’s whole winegrowing space, with about 5600 hectares / 13,800 acres whole of cultivated space below vine. A fraction of that’s devoted to sauvignon blanc. In contrast, the area of Marlborough (within the northeast nook of New Zealand’s South Island) counts about 20,200 hectares / 50,000 acres below vine, most of which is devoted to sauvignon blanc.

Alcohol Ranges

Alcohol ranges by quantity, or ABV, is an attention-grabbing level of distinction between these two origins and kinds of wine.

New Zealand sauvignon blanc usually measures between 12.5 and 13.5 % ABV. In contrast, of the 4 white wines from Alto Adige that had been a part of the digital tasting a couple of weeks in the past, two measured 13.5 % ABV and the opposite two had been 14 % ABV. These numbers could come as a shock to customers, when the belief is that white wines are decrease in alcohol whereas purple wines pattern greater.

It’s value noting that the upper alcohol within the Alto Adige white wine will be attributed to its “mountain fruit” origins; although the soils of the area are a mosaic of varieties, Alto Adige is notably an Alpine area with snow-covered mountains serving because the backdrop to their winery landscapes. Between the altitude and the characteristically sunny days, the yields of the vineyards are low however the focus of the sugars are excessive, which ends up in greater ABV.