{"id":1559,"date":"2011-10-13T19:21:40","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T00:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1559"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:13:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:13:43","slug":"cloudy-bay-sauvignon-blanc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1559","title":{"rendered":"Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Time is a whirligig, says Feste in Twelfth Night. I think it\u2019s a bit more complicated than that. An orrery, more like \u2013 with each mechanical planet spinning in its unique orbit around a brazen sun, now distant, now aligned. Sometimes thing coincide, apparently serendipitously, quite probably in an entirely random way, unless you happen to believe in Fate or God or other supernatures. This week was like that. First (and I wish I could tiptoe around this tragedy), France defeated England at the Rugby World Cup. BLOW WINDS AND CRACK YOUR CHEEKS, SPOUT , SPOUT YOU HURRICANOES\u2026 !! I know\u2026 I know. Hush, my love\u2026 There is no more to be said. Calma\u2026 Calma\u2026 It happened in New Zealand. So perhaps you can appreciate my surprise when a bottle of the new vintage of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc appeared before me.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m exaggerating when I say that this is THE wine that started the whole New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc thing, back in the late 1980s. I was brought up to appreciate Sauvignon Blanc as one of the two grapes in the holy partnership of dry white Bordeaux and sweet Sauternes and also as the tart, tight-lipped spinster responsible for Sancerre. Then, circa 1988, we uncorked a SB from New Zealand\u2019s South Island \u2013 from Marlborough \u2013 and WOW! It was like bright green light streaming up from the glass, filling the room with the aroma of gooseberries and passion fruit, the very definition of the word \u201ctangy.\u201d We looked at the label \u2013 that vaguely Chinese depiction of tiered mountain ranges \u2013 Cloudy Bay. It had the romance \u2013 New Zealand was a very long way away \u2013 the opposite side of the world if you gazed into the brightly lit well at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington (always a destination for birthday parties when I was about seven years old). It was also a really well-made wine, perfectly balanced, intense, gliding into a long vibrant finish. The French have drifted slyly towards the style, without admitting it, and a bunch of Sancerres are now much more fruit-forward and generous than they ever were before New Zealand made its mark on the world. Meanwhile, other NZ SBs have lured us, priced at about a quarter of the dollars demanded by Cloudy Bay. But there\u2019s something to be said for the original.<\/p>\n

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days at Cloudy Bay back in 1997, when Kevin Judd was still the winemaker. They put me up in the \u201cShack,\u201d an extremely comfortable bungalow surrounded by lush gardens (only the English are more conscientious gardeners than the New Zealanders) on the edge of the vineyards. England\u2019s cricket team had stayed there just before me \u2013 so that was extremely exciting.<\/p>\n

There had been no vines planted in the South Island before 1973 \u2013 the experts had declared it was too cold (which may ring a bell amongst winemakers in Niagara and Prince Edward County). Montana took the chance, up in Marlborough, the very northernmost part of the island, and lo, the vines took root and multiplied. Cloudy Bay was established in 1985 by Cape Mentelle, the Western Australian company which was a partnership between Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and David Hohnen, the immensely courageous pioneer of the Margaret River region. Presumably Veuve Clicquot had their eyes on making bubbly in these cold but gifted hills \u2013 and they weren\u2019t wrong. Cloudy Bay\u2019s Pelorus is a lovely sparkler made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with pin-prick mousse and a classic yeasty nose. I tasted the 1993 when I was in Marlborough and loved it. But the 1991 was already showing its age \u2013 a tad jammy and oxidized. I have no doubt that the team has figured out the solution by now.<\/p>\n

The Cloudy Bay, however, was simply dazzling \u2013 lean and svelt but sophisticated, powerful but elegant \u2013 I\u2019m trying to think of an analogous movie star but no one springs to mind \u2013 wines are more perfect than actors. Kevin Judd poured three for me. The young 1997, just months old, was smashing \u2013 all gooseberries and passion fruit and the scent of green grass, full-bodied yet creamy, rich\u2026 There\u2019s a dash of Semillon in there, \u00e0 la Bordelaise, and some very discreet oak ageing \u2013 maybe 10 percent \u2013 just enough to add a little enriching cadmium yellow to the singing green of the Sauvignon Blanc.<\/p>\n

We also tasted the 1994 which was going through some kind of in-vitro mid-life crisis, the fruit vanished from the nose, replaced by the scent of canned white asparagus. Then we opened a 1991 and the asparagus had completely disappeared, giving way to mature petrolly notes, a toastiness, as different from its own youth as a mature gasoline-citrus Mosel is from its steep, slate-clenched, lime-washed, minerally childhood. I asked if the 1991 had had more oak but Judd said no, it was just the maturity of the wine.<\/p>\n

It was interesting to glimpse the future of the young, vibrant Cloudy Bay I had just tasted \u2013 to see what would become of the world-class athlete\u2019s physical perfection when the whirligig of time had brought in his revenges.<\/p>\n

And today I drank the latest vintage, now on sale at the LCBO. Still all youth and vigour and brilliance and creamy skin. The Apollonian God of Sauvignon Blanc. I tasted it alongside another treat, the cheddar and black pepper butter-based shortbread savoury figure-destroyers that are one of President\u2019s Choice new Black Label products. Little drum-shaped temptations. Really really good. Right up there with Harbord Bakery\u2019s spicy, anchovy-laced cheese straws \u2013 and that is praise indeed. The combo worked for me. But it was the Cloudy Bay that had the true cachet of genius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time is a whirligig, says Feste in Twelfth Night. I think it\u2019s a bit more complicated than that. An orrery, more like \u2013 with each mechanical planet spinning in its unique orbit around a brazen sun, now distant, now aligned. Sometimes thing coincide, apparently serendipitously, quite probably in an entirely random way, unless you happen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,1,101,99],"tags":[503],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1559"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1968,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}