Search This Blog

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Stellenryck Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (About $10)

About the Wine:  Sauvignon Blanc is a dry white noted for its strong flavors of grapefruit, lemon, and sometimes melon.  It is a particularly good summer drink for people who like things that are very fruity but who do not like sweet.  Sauv. Blancs tend to be more acid than Chardonnays, making them better with food, and have more character than the often bland Pinot Grigio.
About THIS wine: Stellenryck is from South Africa, a wine growing region with a strange and complicated history.  Basically, the end of apartheid and the opening of trade created a boom in the South African wine industry which ended due to persistent quality issues with the wines they produced.  In recent years, South African wineries have tried to recover their image with brands like Nederburg, Glen Carlou, and Robertson gaining credibility.
The nose of this wine is crisp with strong smells of lemon and hints of grapefruit.  The citrus delivers on the palate in a pleasantly soft way.  Most Sauv. Blancs I have tasted were very strong and sharp.  This one was more mild and gave an unusual, slightly prickly mouth feel.  The acidity was present, but not overly prominent.  Stellenryck has an unimpressive finish, but that is to be expected in a relatively soft wine.
Drinking This Wine:  Stellenryck could be drunk as a sipping wine.  It would also go well with mildly spiced seafood dishes.
Overall Impression:  I'm not really blown away by this wine, but at $10 it is a remarkable value.

No comments:

Post a Comment