All over the world, the thirst for a good Sauvignon Blanc does not end. While it ranked 15th in terms of planted area in the entire world in 1990s, nowadays this variety has risen to 8th place. The total area under the Sauvignon Blanc variety covers more than 120,000 hectares...

Wine competition The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles has been paying special attention to wines made from this variety for 13 years already. In the period from March 18th to March 20th, 2022, 70 international wine judges with experience and expertise in evaluating Sauvignon Blanc gathered in the small town of Torres Vedras, north of Lisbon, at this year's edition of Concours Mondial de Sauvignon to evaluate 1120 samples of Sauvignon Blanc from 23 countries. Most of the samples at the competition came from France, Austria and Italy, but the increasing popularity of Sauvignon Blanc is also indicated by the fact that this year a larger number of samples arrived from Croatia, Romania and the Czech Republic.

The competition itself collects all information about this grape variety in one place, and as a result of the work of the judges at the competition, a unique printed edition of the publication "Sauvignon - A Global Guide" is created, which shows the most important wine regions in the world where Sauvignon Blanc is represented, as well as information about wines, Sauvignon styles, terroir features in those regions. It's really a shame that Šumadija winemakers do not take part in this competition in an organized manner, because this would undoubtedly put Šumadija on the world map of regions that produce Sauvignon Blanc side by side with already established regions such as the Loire Valley, Styria, New Zealand, Bordeaux.

Innovation at the competition is a special software that collects and processes comments of the jury members in the panel so that all winemakers who send wines to the competition receive feedback, i.e. a detailed description and comments about the wine sample.

During two days of wine competition, within the panel number 11 chaired by a judge from Portugal, an experienced taster and wine buyer responsible for the selection of wines in a large supermarket chain in Portugal, we had the opportunity to blindtaste more than 100 samples of Sauvignon Blanc from all over the world. It is really a pleasure to evaluate excellent samples of Sauvignon Blanc such as those coming from Austria, but also wines from Eastern Europe are becoming more and more prominent for their quality (this time some samples of wines from Moldova and Romania were a really pleasant surprise).

Sauvignons from Styria (Austria) won a total of 39 gold and 32 silver medals. A truly outstanding result. Styria also showed its dominance when it came to sauvignons aged in wood, because Peter Skoff Sauvignon Blanc Ried Kranachberg Reserve 2015 wine won the Revelation trophy for sauvignon matured in wood. Stefan Potzinger, the chairman of Wines of Styria association, points out that "Styria is a terroir suited for Sauvignon Blanc variety, which allows them to produce world-class wines in all three sub-regions of Styria, and when so many winemakers focus on a single variety, then success is inevitable."

Sauvignon samples from Rueda (Spain) also attracted attention. Although SauvignonBlanc was introduced for the first time in Rueda in 1973, primarily to enrich the aromatics of Verdejo, the main variety in the region, nowadays there are more and more varietal Sauvignon wines that stylistically draw towards the New World and New Zealand Sauvignons. They are not intended for long aging, so they are most often consumed in the first year or two.

The best rated Sauvignon Blanc in the competition is the wine from the Loire (Touraine Chenonceaux) - Domaine Jean Christophe Mandard Blanc 2020. The Revelation trophy from the Loire Valley was won by the wine Caillottes Sancerre 2020 Joël and Sylvie Cirotte.

In the category of sweet Sauvignon Blanc wines, the best wine comes from the Czech Republic, namely SKALÁK Sauvignon Slámové Víno 2015. The reputation of Sauvignon Blanc from the Balkans was defended by Greece because the wine Ktima Biblia Chora White 2021, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Assyrtiko won the Revelation Trophy in the category of Sauvignon-based blends.

My stay in Portugal was also an opportunity to get to know the wines from Torres Vedras region, approximately 50 km north of Lisbon. The region boasts 6,000 hectares of vineyards on predominantly limestone/clay soils. If we talk about Sauvignon Blanc, in Portugal that variety is most represented in Tejo wine region, but Sauvignon Blanc from Torres Vedras region offers freshness and character in the glass thanks to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, so that in the vineyards even during the summer there is always a beneficial breeze from the ocean that brings freshness and salvation from the heat.

 

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