By TOM MARQUARDT and PATRICK DARR
Summer dinners often call for white wine. We have our loyalties to pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon, but with fish—and there is a great deal of fish on our plates—something lighter and crisper is better suited.
Our friends are less convinced. They sit with their white wine and wait, really, for a red. The problem is that for them, white wine is chardonnay, full stop. Grüner Veltliner, Albariño, Vermentino, Grillo, Riesling—these might as well not exist. It’s a loss they don’t even know they’re suffering.
We offer sauvignon blanc, thinking it a safer bridge. It isn’t. Our friends divide over it almost as fiercely as something far more challenging. New Zealand or California, we ask. The question produces the same blank stalemate as asking a room to agree on who should win the FIFA World Cup soccer game.
France is where the grape begins. The Loire Valley has the oldest paper trail, dating to 1534, and Sancerre remains its most celebrated expression—taut, mineral, coolly aromatic. Pouilly-Fumé, its near neighbor, carries a faint smokiness. Bordeaux developed its own tradition in the Graves, where sauvignon blanc is typically softened by sémillon into something altogether more generous and less angular than what the Loire produces.
These two regions still anchor the grape’s identity, but New Zealand is what many people mean when they reach for a bottle. Marlborough’s sauvignon blanc is a product of extremes: fierce sun that toughens the grape’s skin, cold nights that slow its ripening, and the resulting chemistry—pyrazines, mostly—that drives the wine’s aggressive grapefruit, grassy and green herb character. Think bell peppers and jalapeños. Some find it thrilling. Others find it exhausting.
Robert Mondavi is largely responsible for California’s version. He took a grape that had been made into something sweet and forgettable, aged it in oak, and renamed it fumé blanc. Napa Valley still leans into that richer, tropical register. Sonoma and Monterey, usually working without oak, tend toward something leaner and more acidic, with stone fruit rather than the tropics.
Sauvignon blanc is one of the few categories where sales are merely softening rather than collapsing. Silver Oak, whose entire identity is cabernet, released its first one this year.
Loire. We love the wines from Didier Dagueneau, but these wines are well beyond our budget. On the other hand, consider Domaine Patrick Vauvy in Touraine or Domaine de L’Estang.
Graves. We have enjoyed cases of Château Ducasse over the years and also like Château Graville-Lacoste. Both are blended with semillon to give the region’s wines a softer appeal.
California. Robert Mondavi’s estate fume blanc is still an excellent example of Napa Valley sauvignon blanc. We also love the sauvignon blancs from Gamble, Spottswoode, and Davis in Napa Valley, and from Alma de Cattleya and Mantanzas Creek in Sonoma County.
Here are tasting notes from several we recently tasted:
Gamble Estates Yountville Sauvignon Blanc 2025 ($60). Aged on the lees for 6 months, this nicely textured wine reveals gooseberry and lemongrass aromas with tropical fruit flavors.
Davis Estates Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2024 ($58). Barrel aging gives this vibrant Sauvignon Blanc a round mouthfeel, but it is balanced by acidity. Generous apple and herbal aromas are complemented by varietal grapefruit flavors.
Bogle California Sauvignon Blanc 2023 ($8). Bogle represents some of the best values among all grape varieties, but this Sauvignon Blanc delivers more for the buck. Varietal grapefruit and citrus flavors.
Murphy-Goode North Coast Sauvignon 2023 ($15). Bright citrus and tropical fruit flavors. Great value.
Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc 2025 ($50). Sourcing grapes from Napa and Sonoma counties and adding 6 percent semillon, the producer has a winner. Many vessels—French oak, stainless steel and “other”–were used to create an assertive wine dominated by white grapefruit flavors.
Alma de Cattleya Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2025 ($30). Adding a dab of the musque clone, winemaker Bibiana Gonzalez Rave has a soft yet fresh Sauvignon Blanc with generous citrus, grapefruit notes, and a bit of freshly cut grass.
Silver Oak Sauvignon Blanc 2025 ($40). This well-respected producer has jumped on the Sauvignon Blanc bandwagon with its inaugural release of this grape variety. Sourced from grapes from Napa and Sonoma counties, the producer’s wine has delicious tropical fruit and citrus notes.
Hamel Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($60). If you want to take your Sauvignon Blanc to a higher level, this is a good place to start. Fermented in oak and concrete tank, it has more complexity and texture than your run-of-the-mill Sauvignon Blanc. Generous white peach and apple notes with a nice mineral backbone and hints of freshly cut herbs.
Matanzas Creek Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County 2024 ($25). A good value, this wine showcases lively grapefruit notes, varietal herbs, and minerality.
Dutcher Crossing Winemaker’s Cellar Sauvignon Blanc 2023 ($45). This exquisite Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc has more texture than most wines in this category. Fermented and aged in cigar barrels for nearly a year, it is not your grassy, pungent Sauvignon Blanc common in New Zealand and California. Pineapple and pear aromas with rich citrus and pineapple flavors, with good minerality.
Robert Mondavi “The Estates” Fumé Blanc Napa Valley 2022 ($65). Using grapes from the estate’s Oakville vineyard, Mondavi adds some semillon to create a luscious wine with pear, mango and white peach notes. Terrific.
San Simeon Sauvignon Blanc Paso Robles 2025 ($19). White peach aromas are followed by pear and lime flavors. Vibrant acidity.
Wine picks
Tempo d’Angelus Bordeaux 2023 ($28). Not all Bordeaux is expensive and this one is a beaut for the price. It may not have the finesse and complexity that comes from older vineyards, but it has the same pedigree. Youthful red fruit character; it is 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Cabernet Franc.
Margaux de Brane 2022 ($30). This is another inexpensive Bordeaux we’ve enjoyed over several vintages. It never disappoints. It even ages well for several years. Earthy, spicy aromas with red fruit flavor and a silky texture.
Scaia Bianco Trevenzie IGT 2024 ($15). Scaia is a second label of the Castagnedi brothers’ Tenuta Sant’Antonio and is intended to be a playful twist to traditional Veneto wines. This one, made from Garganega grapes- common to Soave- and Chardonnay, is aromatic and fruit-forward, with citrus and apple notes. Great value for a wine to sip on the patio or serve alongside fish. Playful indeed.
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