Kevin Judd is a master of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. As its name suggests, this is his wild yeast-fermented expression of the grape, along the lines of Cloudy Bay’s Te Koko. It’s a stunning wine, combining notes of white Burgundy, white Bordeaux and Kiwi fruit exuberance. The older oak is very subtle, the savoury, grapefruity, yeasty flavours perfectly judged.
Wine Type: White
2012 Viñalba Torrontés Selección, Mendoza
( £9.99, 13.5%, Majestic )A winery that is best known for its great value Argentinean reds, Viñalba can strut its stuff with white grapes too. This is a classically aromatic example of Torrontés, Argentina’s adopted white grape, with lemon peel and sherbet flavours, bright acidity and a hint of lime zest.
2012 Pewsey Vale, Riesling, Eden Valley
( £13.30, 12.5%, Slurp, Winedirect )Pewsey Vale, Yalumba’s Eden Valley outpost, makes some of my favourite Aussie Rieslings. They are good young but develop stylshly in bottle. This is crisp, focused and tangy with lime and pink grapefruit flavours and a stony, pithy backbone of acidity. Long and focused on the palate.
2012 Thymiopoulos Winery, Atma Malagouzia/Roditis, Central Greece
( £10, 12%, Oddbins )Greek white varieties deserve to be better appreciated, partly because theu retain acidity and pefume in a warm climate. This is a case in point: aromatic, lime-scented and surprisingly light, with good, sappy acidity and undertones of summer flowers.
2012 Château de la Roulerie, Les Grandes Bosses, Anjou, Loire Valley
( £9, 13%, Oddbins )Possibly a little closed at the moment, but this dry Loire Chenin Blanc hints at good things to come in the glass. Tangy, taut and crisp, with pure green apple fruit, lovely focus and a minerally backdrop. Time should confer more weight and some honeyed, bottle-developed characters.
2009 Verget Saint Véran Grand Elevage, Mâconnais, Burgundy
( £17, 13%, Oddbins )White Burgundies from the 2009 vintage don’t lack opulence, but the best ones have freshness and bite, too. This is certainly on the ripe and honeyed side, but it has enough freshness for balance, with notes of vanilla and nutmeg spice, pear and citrus fruit and an appealingly honeyed texture.
2011 François Lurton, Janeil, Gros Manseng & Sauvignon, Côtes de Gascogne
( £7.25, 12.5%, Oddbins )The sort of wine that has made Gascony one of the best value-for-money white wine regions in France, this is a comparativley unusual blend of Sauvignon and Gros Manseng, a grape more often found in Jurançon. It’s tangy, refreshing and crisp, with peach, apricot and grapefruit flavours and a zesty finish.
2011 Jacques & Nathalie Saumaize, Saint-Véran, En Crèches, Mâconnais, Burgundy
( £11.50, 13%, The Wine Society )Supple for a 2011, but showing good underlying acidity, this southern Burgundian Chardonnay is all about fruit and focus, not oak. It’s taut and fresh with a whiff of orange zest, and flavours of fennel, white peach and pear.
2007 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume, Vignoble de Vaulorent, Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume, Burgundy
( £29, 13%, The Wine Society )2007 was a vintage that was overlooked in Burgundy, both for reds and whites, which is a shame as they are drinking really well now. This has a delicious combination of honeyed development with bracing acidity to pull the wine back into line. Taut and chalky, with impressive palate length.
2012 Dog Point Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough
( £12.95, 13.5%, Berry Bros & Rudd, The Wine Society )As good as ever, this textbook Marlborough Sauvignon has more depth and layers than most local examples, combining grapefruit and guava fruit with pithy acidity and notes of green herbs, green pepper and zing. These Sauvignons age surprisingly well, too.
2012 Santadi Villa Solais Vermentino, Sardegna
( £10.95, 13%, Great Western Wine )I’m a huge fan of Vermentino wherever it’s grown, but this Sardinian example is a total bargain. It’s ripe and spicy, with plenty of colour as well as notes of fresh straw, pear and aniseed, a bitter, nutty undertone and refreshing acidity. Superb value at under £11.
2012 Cristina Ascheri, Arneis, Langhe, Piedmont
( £13.95, 13.5%, Great Western Wine )Arneis is Piedmont’s best white grape in my opinion, especially when it offers the sort of value and fruit concentration on show here from Ascheri in Bra. Refeshing and zesty, with a slight spritz, but with plenty of weight and concentration behind, with pear and angelica spice and a deliciously bitter twist.