Vinloco Top 50: Sauvignon Blanc
Australasia’s top Sauvignon Blancs
It’s Australia’s favourite summer wine…even though it mostly comes from across The Ditch. Sauvignon Blanc’s rise and rise in Australia became known to the local liquor trade as the “Sauvalanche” after the canny kiwis remodelled the grape into today’s fruit salad of passionfruit, gooseberry and pineapple. Australians haven’t been able to attract quite the same following for their own offerings in this variety although some Adelaide Hills wineries have developed a passionate cohort of supporters.
Indeed, we had our own difficulties with this variety although of the mathematical rather than viticultural kind. Like many things trans-Tasmanian, it’s the little differences that cause the most problems (try putting a “thong” on your foot in NZ and you’d earn some strange looks from the locals).
The particular difference that gave us pause for thought was the annoying habit of most Kiwi wine shows to only report wines that earn a medal. They then compound the problem by only reporting the medal itself rather than a numerical score to support it… but that’s a rant better left for another day.
The main problem with the “medal-only” approach is that it skews the distribution of scores upwards. This makes a wine score under this system a bit harder to directly compare with the more tough-minded Australian shows. The fact that virtually all the Kiwi shows follow this system (to the detriment of everyone concerned, in our humble opinion) as well as the sheer number of NZ sauvvies in Australia meant that we had to fiddle with our ranking system to take account of the Kiwis’ upward bias.
We think we got there in the end but, for the sake of fairness, we have decided to publish a second list that separates out the NZ wines. Our rankings are drawn from more than 1200 scores covering about 900 sauvignon blancs. Slightly more than half of these came from NZ.
Anyway, if you love a sauvignon blanc, this is the definitive list of what to drink this summer:
| 1 | Lost Buoy Wines Gulf View Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 2 | Brangayne of Orange Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 3 | Abbey Creek Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 4 | Esk Valley Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 5 | Giesen The Fuder Dillons Point Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 5 | Crosse Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 7 | Knee Deep Wines Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 8 | Miles From Nowhere Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 9 | Babydoll Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 9 | Fairhall Downs Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 9 | Saint Clair Pioneer Block 20 Cash Block Sauvignon Blanc 2015 2016 |
| 12 | Cellarmasters Lysander Limestone Coast Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 13 | Leefield Station Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 14 | Zonte?s Footstep Excalibur Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 15 | Millbrook Winery Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 16 | Berrigan Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 17 | Villa Maria Reserve Wairau Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 18 | Brancott EstateTerroir Series Fume Blanc Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 19 | Tamburlaine Wines Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 20 | Tohu Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 21 | Knee Deep Wines Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 22 | Giesen The August Sauvignon Blanc 2012 |
| 22 | Yealands Estate Winemaker’s Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2014 |
| 22 | Kim Crawford Small Parcels Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 22 | Matua Single Vineyard Awatere Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 22 | Peter Yealands Eco Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 22 | Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 22 | Starborough Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 29 | Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 29 | Tiki Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 31 | Peregrine Sauvignon Blanc Central Otago 2016 |
| 32 | Brancott Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 33 | Yarran Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 34 | Australian Vintage Ltd Nepenthe Petraea Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 35 | te Pa “Oke” Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 36 | Kim Crawford Small Parcels Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 37 | Raidis Estate ‘The Kelpie’ Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 38 | Villa Maria Reserve Southern Clays Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 39 | Selaks Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 40 | Robert Oatley Signature Series Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 41 | Stoneleigh Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 42 | Stoneleigh Latitude Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 43 | Burnbrae Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 44 | Forester Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 45 | Vidal Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 46 | Toi Toi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 47 | Lindemans Bin 95 Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 48 | Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 49 | Brancott Estate Letter Series “B” Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 49 | Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
Top 50 NZ Sauvignon Blancs:
Top 50 NZ Sauvignon Blancs
| 1 | Esk Valley Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 2 | Tohu Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 3 | Brancott EstateTerroir Series Fume Blanc Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 4 | Giesen The Fuder Dillons Point Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 4 | Crosse Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 6 | te Pa “Oke” Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 7 | Leefield Station Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 8 | Babydoll Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 8 | Fairhall Downs Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2016 |
| 8 | Saint Clair Pioneer Block 20 Cash Block Sauvignon Blanc 2015 2016 |
| 11 | Villa Maria Reserve Wairau Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 12 | Brancott Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 13 | Kim Crawford Small Parcels Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 14 | Coopers Creek Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 14 | Mount Riley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 16 | Toi Toi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 17 | Huntaway Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2014 |
| 18 | Selaks Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 19 | Stoneleigh Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 20 | Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 20 | Tiki Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 22 | Thornbury Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 23 | Rapaura Springs Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 24 | Giesen The August Sauvignon Blanc 2012 |
| 24 | Yealands Estate Winemaker’s Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2014 |
| 24 | Kim Crawford Small Parcels Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 24 | Matua Single Vineyard Awatere Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 24 | Peter Yealands Eco Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 24 | Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 24 | Starborough Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 31 | Stoneleigh Latitude Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 32 | Peter Yealands Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 33 | Peregrine Sauvignon Blanc Central Otago 2016 |
| 34 | Brancott Estate Letter Series “B” Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 34 | Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 36 | Giesen The August Sauvignon Blanc 2014 |
| 37 | Starborough Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 38 | Villa Maria Reserve Southern Clays Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 39 | Morton Estate White Label Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 39 | Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 41 | Vidal Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 42 | Rapaura Springs Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 43 | Selaks Founders Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |
| 44 | Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 45 | Black Cottage Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 46 | Morton Estate Black Label Sauvignon Blanc 2013 |
| 47 | Mount Vernon Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 47 | Mud House Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 49 | Pa Road Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 |
| 50 | Grove Mill Sauvignon Blanc 2015 |