Our blind tasting game—without the tasting! Can you identify a wine just by reading its tasting note? We post real Wine Spectator reviews. You use clues such as color, aromas, flavors and structure to figure out the grape, age and origin. Good luck!
Tasting Note:
A vibrant white, with an intense, fragrant and mouthwatering mix of Key lime, passion fruit and grilled pineapple flavors, accented by hints of lemon verbena, lemongrass and freshly grated ginger, plus a note of crunchy sea salt that lingers on the sleek frame.
And the answer is...
Variety
Our mystery white is vibrant and mouthwatering with Key lime, passion fruit and lemongrass notes. Let’s figure out what it is!
We can start by removing Chenin Blanc from the running, as this grape tends to produce rich, full-bodied wines with distinctive floral notes, like honeysuckle, with many styles also showing nutty and toasty flavors. While Chenin often has mouthwatering acidity and can show citrus and even tropical fruit flavors, our wine’s sleek frame and accents of lemon verbena and lemongrass would be unusual. Let’s move on.
Chardonnay can show vibrant citrus and fruit flavors marked by relatively high acidity. But most versions are quite full-bodied, and many see aging in oak, which imparts toasty, spicy notes that aren’t present in our wine. Unoaked versions, especially those from Chablis in France, could show a sleek frame and salty, herbal accents like our wine’s. But we’d expect more lemon and orchard fruit flavors from a Chablis, not our wine’s Key lime, passionfruit and pineapple notes. See you later, Chardonnay.
What about Albariño? This increasingly popular grape, which is concentrated in Portugal (where it’s known as Alvarinho) and in Spain’s Rías Baixas, tends to make lighter-bodied wines with salty accents. But we’d expect more mineral drive and orchard fruit (especially peach) from Albariño, and our wine’s lemongrass and ginger accents would be atypical.
Grüner Veltliner makes high-acid, aromatic wines with a range of fruit flavors, and it can show our wine’s salty aspect and even grassy accents. But again, our wine’s passion fruit and pineapple would be unusual, and we’re missing any of Grüner’s classic savory, vegetal notes and peppery, earthy accents.
Sauvignon Blanc produces refreshing, aromatic white wines that can show a range of bright, zesty citrus and fruit flavors, marked by mineral and herbal accents. We have a winner!
This wine is a Sauvignon Blanc.
Country or Region of Origin
We can eliminate Spain off the bat—while there is some Sauvignon Blanc planted in the country, it’s not a major player, and varieties like Verdejo continue to dominate Spain’s production of crisp, aromatic white wine.
Sauvignon Blanc is increasingly important in Austria, especially in Styria, but we would expect those wines to show a more restrained, smoky, mineral-driven style with dried herb notes.
France and California are both important producers of Sauvignon Blanc. Could one of them be a match? In France, Sauvignon Blanc is a crucial grape in the Loire Valley, especially Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. But those wines, somewhat like Austrian versions, tend to be much more restrained, smoky and mineral-driven than our mystery wine. The grape is also an important player in white Bordeaux, but those wines, which are typically aged in oak, tend to show a rounder, richer profile. Notes of passion fruit and grilled pineapple would be especially out of place in Sauvignon Blanc from either French region.
California Sauvignon Blancs can display some tropical fruit flavors akin to our wine’s, but we would typically expect a richer style, since many California producers use some oak during winemaking or aging. That isn’t a match for our wine’s vibrant, sleek frame and crunchy sea salt notes.
New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is famous for its vibrant citrus and fruit flavors, including exotic tropical notes like pineapple and passion fruit. These wines are intensely refreshing, with mouthwatering acidity and herbal, grassy flavors, including that classic note of lemongrass. That sounds like a perfect match for our mystery wine!
This Sauvignon Blanc is from New Zealand.
Appellation
We know that our Sauvignon Blanc is from New Zealand, so we can eliminate Spain’s Rías Baixas, France’s Savennières, California’s Napa Valley and Austria’s Wachau. That leaves two options in New Zealand: Marlborough and Central Otago. Central Otago, on the southern part of the South Island, is famous for Pinot Noir, by far the dominant grape there. While you can find Sauvignon Blanc from Central Otago, the heartland of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is Marlborough, in the northern part of the South Island. There, the grape produces world-famous wines marked by crisp, zingy flavors of citrus, fruit and herbs.
This Sauvignon Blanc is from Marlborough.
Age
Our Sauvignon Blanc is vibrant and mouthwatering, with bright, fresh citrus and fruit flavors on a sleek frame. It doesn’t have any tertiary notes, like dried fruit or nutty flavors, that would indicate significant age. Moreover, most New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is released with minimal aging and made to be consumed on release, or very shortly thereafter. It’s a good bet that our wine is quite young.
This wine is from the 2024 vintage, the current release for most producers, making it just a year old.
Wine
This is the Allan Scott Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2024, which scored 93 points and retails for $20. 100,000 cases were made, and 80,000 cases were imported. For more on New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, check out senior editor MaryAnn Worobiec’s latest tasting report, and test your knowledge of the grape by taking our Sauvignon Blanc quiz!
—Kenny Martin, associate editor
