The very best sauvignon blancs will hit their stride between five and eight years from vintage. Château Bauduc

Welcome to Sauvignon and Sémillon week! This week, we celebrate all things related to sauvignon blanc and sémillon.

One of the most often-asked questions I get is whether there is any point in cellaring New Zealand sauvignon blanc or if the wine is best drunk fresh and young. The answer, as you can imagine, is not straightforward and like many things, “… it depends”. So let’s discuss it in more detail and hopefully, by the end of this, you’ll be better informed to make delicious decisions with sauvignon blanc (and sémillon, where appropriate).

First of all, there is plenty of ‘prior art’ and evidence of sauvignon’s ageability: one need look no further than the spiritual home of the variety in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé to see examples which often taste better with a year or two in bottle and the best of which easily continue developing complexity for a decade or more. Likewise with white Bordeaux, especially in the Graves with the classified growths of Pessac-Léognan (for dry wine) or the ravishing Sauternes and Barsac sweet wines (let’s leave those aside for our purposes today).

Now, it should seem relatively logical to expect that the wines which are fermented or aged in oak would have ageability built in. The easy explanation for this is that winemakers tend to select more intensely flavoursome or structured parcels of fruit into a barrel-aged program as they stand to benefit from the extra ageing and complexity before bottling. But in some rare instances, the oak can overpower the fruit, especially in less concentrated years, so although this correlation between aged and age-ability generally holds, it is not a given.

Likewise, though most sauvignon blanc aged in stainless steel – especially for a short period before bottling –is designed for immediate drinking, there are examples of purely stainless-steel sauvignons which can develop. It all comes down to the structure, fruit intensity, concentration. depth and stability of flavour which ultimately determines whether a wine will remain balanced and interesting as the primary flavours slowly change, or whether they rapidly turn mature and/or fall over.

To better understand the change which comes with bottle age, it is actually helpful to examine what undesirable things can happen with aged sauvignon blanc. The first which comes to mind is the dreaded canned asparagus and boiled peas flavour which can occur during ageing when very grassy methoxypyrazines and volatile sulfur compounds cross a threshold of perception together. In most cases, when this happens, it is difficult to enjoy and the wine is deemed to have ‘gone over the hill’. Wines which can keep these flavours under control while emphasising other flavours tend to taste more balanced and maintain aromatic interest. Sometimes, some subtle, flinty or reductive notes can add minerality to the wine as its fruit becomes less intense.

Wines aged in oak will take on some of the same development characteristics of other white wines aged in oak, such as nutty, smoky and spicy notes as well as the palate structure which comes from the additional tannins from the oak. The unspoken thing is that generally, wines which are cropped at high yields do not lend themselves to the sort of balance and concentration which suits ageing, so conversely, low-yielding vines (such as those which are dry-grown or from lower-yielding regions) will withstand the ageing process better.

And when we talk about age-ability what kind of timeframes are we talking about? Most of the very fruity and aromatic sauvignons will move out of that stage within the course of a year and for those wines, the flush of youthful exuberance is their ultimate expression. These would fall into the ‘drink now’ camp. The more restrained and concentrated examples of sauvignon blanc will hit their peak of complexity between two and four years of age while fruit is still a feature, as long as they can stave off the ‘asparagus’ stage.

The very best (often long lees-aged and/or partly/fully in oak) will hit their stride between five and eight years from vintage, after which it will come down to sheer concentration and the combination of structural elements (phenolics, tannins, acidity) to determine how long they keep at that apogée before fading. It is rare, but I have had 100% sauvignon blanc wines which are still elegantly balanced with some freshness and great complexity at 20 to 25 years old so it is definitely possible for the variety.

Note that I have consciously avoided saying that these wines need or should be cellared, as it can come down to personal preference. Some drinkers will absolutely prefer the freshness, vibrancy and fruit-forward appeal of a young sauvignon blanc; others may prefer the most savoury, textural complexity which comes when the intense primary flavours recede and give way to lees-enriched creaminess, subtle nutty notes or emergent minerality. Of course, one could like both and enjoy the wine across a broad range of maturity.

For those of you wanting to try what aged New Zealand sauvignon blanc tastes like, take a look at our recent reviews – some wineries release their wines with bottle age built in so you can ‘short cut’ the process and decide if you like the taste before committing to ageing sauvignon blanc yourself. Thankfully, most sauvignon blanc in New Zealand, even those which can develop in bottle, are still relatively affordable!