The other day I was at Aldis doing a small bit of shopping when I happened to pass by the wine section. I thought, would you just look at that, the wine section. One of the wines that caught my eye was todays review wine which is a Sauvignon Blanc. The bottle had a sticker on it that said the wine was rated 93 points by something named "Wine Orbit". I don't know about you but I have never heard of Wine Orbit but I figured it was a good enough reason for me to buy the bottle :) I guess I figured if Wine Orbit liked the wine so much, it had to be good...right? Having gotten the wine home and am now sitting in front of my computer I see that the site claims to be "a website that provides reviews of New Zealand wines and wines from around the world." Okay so the site sounds interesting but can they rate a wine? We will now find out.
Today I will be taking a look at the 2024 Sunshine Bay, Sauvignon Blanc. I paid $8.99 for the wine and the bottle is screw cap sealed. The wine comes in at 12.5% alcohol and its grapes come from the Marlborough region (Wairau Valley) of New Zealand.
On the nose I'll let you know that my glass is about two feet away from me and I am definitely picking up lemongrass, fresh, very fresh smelling lemongrass. There appears to be a nice, bright vibrancy to the bouquet even from this distance. Bringing the glass to my nose now, that lemongrass is indeed very forward and smells inviting for sure. There is almost a musky greenish type note to the wine as well and if that sounds weird, I will let you know that the wine doesn't smell weird that's for sure, it actually smells very inviting.
On the palate now, I have to right away let you know that the wine disappoints. I guess I'm getting ahead of myself though so allow me to back up a bit. There is a watery sort of dominance to the wine. This watery taste is fairly forward and is what I seem to remember as long as the wine sits in my mouth. There is lemongrass here on the palate but that wateriness...blandness note really deadens...softens it a great deal. Acidity is a bit on the high side and a bit unbalanced as well in my opinion. On the sides of my palate is where I semi enjoyed the wine as it seemed to exhibit a very nice brilliance of sorts. Passion fruit is here as well and it is forward. This passion fruit is really the fruit that stands out to. This passion fruit really does its best to fight off that wateriness and to its credit, it does a good job at it but in the end, fails to do so. There is a greenness to this wine that I thought was a bit to much as it seemed to add a good amount of driness to the wine. Minerality here is way overdone and leads to a wine that is more stone tasting than anything else. Lime is here but it has zero sharpness...zero freshness to it. As a matter of fact, the wine would have better without this note.
So...now that you have read all of the above and you are rightfully expecting me to bomb this wine, you need to read on. Keep in mind that this is a wine and not a beer so sipping, tasting is a big part of a review. Having said this I have to let you know that the wine developed after a while into a wine that originally was headed for 84 points but turned into an 89 point wine in the end which is a big jump. The flavor developed and was actually very nice. The wine amazingly became fresh, bright and tasty. That blandness (watery note) is gone...like, completely. What replaced this blandness is flavor, flavor of fresh lemongrass, a nice lemongrass. Acidity ended up remaining on the slightly high end but became on point and nice. Minerality remains but unfortunately it still isn't that great. The passion fruit was bright and flavorful while giving way to the wines other notes. The wine in the end was juicy and wasn't shy at all about expressing itself. Okay folks, I do believe this review has gone on long enough. I will see you in the next paragraph and wrap this all up. 
Okay so, do I recommend this wine? The answer is, yeah, if you want to
open a wine and let it sit for 45 minutes, I recommend it, it's decent. What this wine is is a slightly above average wine for the price. After 45 minutes the wine has finally come into its own and is on the enjoyable side. Now guys, don't get me wrong, this is not the finest Sauvignon Blanc I have tasted but it earned its place. As for a pool wine, if waiting 45 minutes for your guests to taste it works for you than yeah, it can be but I myself wouldn't do that as this is a long time for a wine to find itself, too long. In the end, the wine was worth the effort if you decant it and have something else to do in the meantime.
The Desert Wine Guy
No comments:
Post a Comment