The Constantia climate used to be described as a Mediterranean climate (warm, dry Summers, and cold, wet Winters) but now we call it Maritime, as it is actually the ocean that has the biggest influence, whipping up the chilly South Easter that blows throughout Summer through our vines, and then generating large cold fronts in the Winter that smash into the Cape Peninsula.
With cold climate comes a distinctive style of Sauvignon Blanc that makes for all the top Sauvignon Blancs in the world, such as Loire Valley (France), Marlborough (New Zealand), Margaret River (Australia) and Constantia. While these regions may produce the best Sauvignons you can find, they are not always the fruitiest, or easiest drinking. As I explained in the previous blog, you can expect to find high acid in these wines. I talked about ways to mitigate unbalanced wine in the vineyard/winemaking process, but you will always have high acid in cold climate Sauvignon Blanc.
Some people like higher acid, and others don’t. I sit in the latter party. While I appreciate the role acidity plays in the freshness of a wine, I don’t enjoy wines that are very tart. I think there are two major options to handle the acidity: One is to pair the wine with food, as the fattiness of food coats your mouth and softens the effect of acidity. With each sip, the acid rinses off the fat, and cleanses your taste buds, which is why many foods taste better with wine!! The second option is to age the wine for a few years.
Most people think that only red wines need to be aged, but this is far from the truth. Serious white wines often need two to four years in the bottle to open into their true potential. See my notes from the last blog:
“Lastly, wine naturally mellows and develops complexity through bottle maturation. So even if you had two very consistent vintages, the older wine should always taste less fresh, but more complex. The fruitiness of Sauvignon Blanc is what we call a primary flavour since this is the first flavour that develops during fermentation. But with ageing, the fruitiness is transformed into more savoury/umami notes, and we call these flavours tertiary. Most people are attracted to the younger, primary flavours of Sauvignon, but as you get to taste more and more wine, the “developed” style becomes more interesting, and often more food friendly.”
As the above states, a few years in the bottle gives the wine time for all the parts to become harmonised and rounded.
So next time you come to the tunnel for a tasting on Tuesday or Thursday, come and taste a vertical of vintages, and see why we haven’t released our 2023 vintage yet.