A trusty wine from one of my favourite parts of the world, Southern Right as served as my favorite fish restaurant ‘Fish!’ in Borough Market, and its steely minerality on the palate and fruit forward nose coupled with a crisp and dry palate makes for a perfect wine, and the name reminds me of whale-spotting, oyster festivals and good times.

Let’s leave the citrus, passion-fruit and high acidity antipodes and head back to the Sauvignon Blanc alma marta, the good old Loire Valley. So in case you’re working a little late and haven’t gone to the store to get salmon, oysters and wine like my good sense has instructed - then I’m giving you one last chance to add a wine to your list before getting home and playing a good host to your friends.

As I say, heading to France I present the Remy Pannier 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, which packs modest fruit aromas of fresh pear, perhaps even a slight flintyness. On the palate one is braced by a rigid minerality alongside what I can only describe as snap-peas. This is the perfect wine to finish you Sauvignon Blanc flight with as it will recenter your palate, and provide perspective on the range of possibility in this god given grape varietal.

Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc is a wine that causes my eyes to light up when I see it in an American bottle store. No jokes. There are only a few other SB’s that get the same reaction from me - Steenberg, Douglas Green, Kanu, Boschendal, Jardin and Durbanville Hills being the main contenders. There are a lot of wines that America does well, but Sauvignon Blanc is not on that list. In my book, South Africa provides the best value for money in Sauvignon Blanc, period. Monkey Bay, Oyster Bay, Spy Valley and the lot all do a good job - but they don’t provide the elegance, restraint and crisp profile that South Africa offers up.At risk of being labeled repetitive I purchase Mulberbosch about 5 times a year - usually on the way to a barbecue when I want to be patriotic and impressive simultaneously. I love it’s country-fresh grass aroma: clean, faint and alluring. On entry the wine is incredibly balanced, cleansing the palate with bright citrus zest and ending on a distinctive green apple finish. With a slightly elevated alcohol the Mulderbosch makes your mouth water on entry - leaving the parched mouth coated, refreshed and quenched.
This wine provides perfection for the price and I never pass up the opportunity to add another bottle to my fridge. I would say collection (but for a collection I believe you’d have to buy it with the intention of putting it aside.)

This Koura Bay wine is a perfect example of the pungent cat-pee-phenomenon in New World Sauvignon Blanc. I used to think that the description of that profile would turn people off - but oddly, people seem to get addicted to it, which just goes to show how fetishist wine lovers can be.

Sauvignon Blanc and New Zealand are pretty much synonymous and interchangeable. Insofar as New World goes, New Zealand is Sauvignon Blanc. And soon enough I will tell you how $15 Spanish SB knocks the socks off Sancerre, but allow me to sing the praises of New Zealand, and especially Mary Bank a little more. It’s colour has a pale-straw hue, following through to a cut-lawn cum grapefruit profile with a hint of kiwi fruit. On the entry there’s that signature SB Zing which just electrifies the mouth, and the wine keep delivering new layers of fruit as it warms up and opens out.