2007 Scheid Sauvignon Blanc
2007 Scheid Sauvignon Blanc
by Haydn Adams | Beyond Napa Valley Blog
Retail Price: $18.00
Appellation: Monterey, California
Where you can buy this wine: Scheid Vineyards
ALC: 13.5%
Haydn gives this wine: 87 pts
There is something about Sauvignon Blancs that make me smile. Maybe it is the crispness mixed with a fair bit of acidity. For whatever reason, this Sauvignon Blanc does it’s job by providing textbook characteristics with some smooth qualities.
The color of this wine is a pretty light yellow. It picks up a bit of color from the 10% it hung out in 3-year-old French oak barrels. After about 2 years, barrels have lost their luster, so you’re not going to see any piece of oak here, even if parts did touch it for a little while. The remaining 90% of the wine underwent aging in stainless steel. A wise choice as this wine demonstrates some textbook characteristics.
The nose exhibits a strong sense of acidity, with images of ruby-red grapefruits. It is a sweet-acidic, not tart like a lemon. The nose is fairly strong, and even with only a little bit of wine in the glass, the aromas fill the space with a bit of intensity. a little honeydew can also be found on the nose.
The wine has a pleasant mouthfeel. For something this acidic, I was expecting a bigger bite. However, this is a good thing. As the grapefruit smell continues, the classic lemon component emerges. It’s as if it was hiding on the nose, but then comes out of it’s shell on the mid-palate. Another word I would use to describe the palate is exceptionally clean. Not jarring components, just refined and fairly smooth.
The finish was the most surprising, with the Sauvignon Blanc picking up a trace amount of honey with the grapefruit and lemon. I suspect that is from the 10% French Oak used to complete this wine. The grapefruit is carried throughout the wine all the way until the finish, yet it seems to pick up and drop off other fruits along the way.
A beautiful wine to enjoy on a bright and warm spring day. You could easily pair this wine with shrimp or crab, just make sure the seafood is more whiter in color. However, I would be very conent with just drinking this wine all by itself, as it does have enough stamina to stand on its own two feet.
Drink this wine now through 2012. Due to the screw top (a nice little nod to the kiwis) along with the stainless steel aging, this wine will most likely not change in the years to come. Just don’t wait to long until it turns to vinegar, or something worse!
—————————-
Haydn S. Adams is a wine author and reviews wines for wineries all over the world. He currently writes for vinvillage.com along with his own wine review site at www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/.
