Sauvignon Blanc

The OIV describes Sauvignon as a French white grape variety that has been cultivated in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux region for centuries. The Vins de Loire site calls the grape "Original to southwestern France", and a Decanter WSET Level 2 article states that Bordeaux was where the grape originated. WSET notes that the name is believed to originate from the French word 'sauvage', meaning wild, because its leaves resemble wild grapevine leaves. Jancis Robinson notes that the variety is often called simply Sauvignon and that some German speakers call it Muskat-Silvaner. New Zealand Winegrowers records that Sauvignon Blanc was commercially produced in New Zealand for the first time in the 1970s and that Marlborough's first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted in 1975. Jancis Robinson writes that New Zealand burst on the international scene in the 1980s with an extravagantly forceful, fruity style of Sauvignon Blanc.

• Cultivated in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux region for centuries (OIV)
• Name believed to come from the French 'sauvage' (wild), because its leaves resemble wild grapevine leaves (WSET)
• Synonyms listed by the OIV include Blanc Fumé, Fumé Blanc and Muscat Sylvaner
• Marlborough's first Sauvignon Blanc vines planted in 1975 (New Zealand Winegrowers)

VIVC records Sauvignon Blanc under variety number 10790, with SAUVIGNON BLANC as its prime name. According to VIVC, the variety's country of origin is France. According to VIVC, one parent of Sauvignon Blanc is Savagnin, which the VIVC passport names by its prime name SAVAGNIN BLANC (VIVC variety number 17636). VIVC records the second parent as unknown. VIVC also records Sauvignon Blanc as a parent in its own right: the VIVC passport for Cabernet Sauvignon names Cabernet Franc as parent 1 and Sauvignon Blanc as parent 2.

• Country of origin: France, according to VIVC
• Parent 1: Savagnin (VIVC prime name SAVAGNIN BLANC), according to VIVC
• Parent 2: unknown, according to VIVC
• Offspring recorded by VIVC: Cabernet Sauvignon (Cabernet Franc x Sauvignon Blanc)

WSET describes Sauvignon Blanc as a grape that can appear in many different guises, from a light-bodied grassy Loire Valley wine to a complex, weighty white Bordeaux. A Decanter WSET Level 2 article summarises the wines as high in acidity, medium-bodied and almost always dry. Wine Australia describes the variety as typically light-bodied with fresh, vibrant and distinctive flavours, in oaked and unoaked versions depending on the desired style. WSET states that Sancerre AOC and Pouilly-Fumé AOC wines are dry with high acidity and lifted 'green' aromatics of grass, asparagus and green apple. Napa Valley Sauvignon Blancs, by WSET's account, tend to be similar to white Bordeaux: full bodied, ripe and often oaked.

• Acidity: high; almost always dry (Decanter, WSET Level 2)
• Body: from light-bodied in the Loire to weighty white Bordeaux and full-bodied Napa Valley (WSET)
• Most producers opt for stainless steel to retain the variety's aromatic, fruity aromas (WSET)

WSET says Sauvignon Blanc thrives in cool to moderate climates: if the climate is too warm, the grapes ripen too quickly and the variety's distinctive herbaceous aromas will not develop, and in moderate climates it needs a site with the cooling influence of altitude or ocean breezes. The OIV recorded 123,000 ha of the variety in 2015 and says it is grown in all major wine-producing countries of the world. In France, Jancis Robinson names the upper Loire, and the twin appellations of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in particular, as the variety's stronghold. Vins de Loire lists Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly and Touraine among the Loire's Sauvignon Blanc areas, and Jancis Robinson adds Burgundy's St-Bris. Bordeaux.com reports a strong presence in the Graves, the Entre-deux-Mers and Sauternes, and Jancis Robinson describes Sauvignon Blanc as one of the two dominant white grapes of south-west France, often blended with Semillon. Elsewhere in Europe she names Rueda in Spain, Styria in Austria and Collio in north-east Italy. Beyond Europe, WSET notes that coastal Chilean regions such as the Casablanca Valley are cooled by sea breezes and morning fog, and Jancis Robinson adds Leyda/San Antonio. Wine Australia reports that Sauvignon Blanc more than doubled in area in Australia in ten years from 2001 to 2010 and rose to be the second largest white winegrape variety after Chardonnay in 2014; it is grown from the warmest 'river' regions to the cool climates of the Adelaide Hills and Tasmania, and thrives in the maritime climate of Margaret River, where it is often found in blends with Semillon. In the United States, WSET notes that Napa Valley winemakers need sites with altitude or cooling sea fogs, and Jancis Robinson writes that Washington state can make some fine, racy Sauvignon Blanc.

• Loire: Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly, Touraine (Vins de Loire)
• Bordeaux: Graves, Entre-deux-Mers, Sauternes (Bordeaux.com)
• New Zealand: Marlborough, Hawke's Bay (New Zealand Winegrowers)
• Chile: Casablanca Valley (WSET); Leyda/San Antonio (Jancis Robinson)
• Australia: Adelaide Hills, Tasmania, Margaret River (Wine Australia)
• South Africa: Constantia and Elgin (Decanter)

New Zealand Winegrowers records that Sauvignon Blanc was commercially produced in New Zealand for the first time in the 1970s and is now the country's most widely planted variety; Marlborough's first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted in 1975. The same body describes New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc as pungently aromatic, with red capsicum (bell pepper) and gooseberry characters, lush passionfruit and tropical fruit overtones, and other notes of fresh cut grass, tomato stalks, grapefruit or lime. New Zealand Winegrowers calls Marlborough the country's largest Sauvignon Blanc region, with low rainfall, consistently high sunshine hours and large diurnal temperature shifts during the ripening period. It gives more herbaceous and mineral styles from the Awatere Valley and a riper, tropical, more pungent style from the main Wairau Valley. The Awatere Valley is described as cooler, drier and windier, often with a degree of elevation, and the Southern Valleys sub-region (the Omaka, Fairhall, Brancott, Ben Morvan and Waihopai Valleys) as having soils that tend to be heavier and contain more clay than Wairau. Hawke's Bay, by contrast, produces a riper, rounder style with lower acidity and rich tropical flavours. Jancis Robinson notes that the vines seem particularly at home in the dry gravels of Marlborough's Wairau Valley and names Cloudy Bay as the most famous producer.

• First Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc vines: 1975 (New Zealand Winegrowers)
• Wairau Valley: riper, tropical, more pungent style
• Awatere Valley: more herbaceous and mineral styles
• Increasing diversity of styles through wild ferments, lees contact and fermentation or ageing in oak (New Zealand Winegrowers)

Jancis Robinson describes the smell as sharp and piercing, reminding different tasters variously of gooseberries, nettles, crushed blackcurrant leaves and occasionally cat's pee, and notes that with age aromas reminiscent of canned asparagus can develop. She adds that the smell of Sauvignon was one of the first to be explained in terms of the dominant flavour compounds, called methoxypyrazines. The OIV attributes the variety's success largely to the varietal aromas of thiol compounds (blackcurrant, exotic fruit, boxwood), whose expression varies depending on the terroir, vintage and growing conditions of the grapes. Sunlight and climate shape the fruit. WSET notes that grapes grown in the shade have nearly double the amount of the aromatic compound behind the variety's green bell pepper flavour compared with those grown in sunlight, and that winemakers can mix shaded grapes (for 'green' flavours) with sun-exposed grapes (for tropical flavours). New Zealand Winegrowers finds that warmer northern regions give riper and richer styles with melon, nectarine and other stonefruit flavours, while cooler southern regions give more pungent, crisper wines with passionfruit and other tropical fruit flavours, red pepper (capsicum) and gooseberry characters. Bordeaux.com names citrus, boxwood and fig leaf as the variety's three aromatic markers, and Vins de Loire describes a palette from floral notes (hawthorn, broom) to white-fleshed fruit and citrus, with a subtle minerality sometimes referred to as a "flinty note" on flinty terroirs such as Pouilly-Fumé or Sancerre.

• Loire: grass, asparagus and green apple (WSET)
• New Zealand: red capsicum, gooseberry, passionfruit and tropical fruit (New Zealand Winegrowers)
• Casablanca Valley, Chile: passion fruit with herbaceous notes of grass (WSET)
• Bordeaux: citrus, boxwood and fig leaf (Bordeaux.com)

Jancis Robinson writes that most Sauvignon Blanc is fermented at relatively low temperatures in stainless steel to preserve youthful fruit, and that the wines are in general designed to be drunk as young as possible, although some fruit from particularly low-yielding vineyards can be concentrated enough to withstand oak ageing. WSET sets out the choices: wild or inoculated yeasts, then storage in inert vessels such as stainless steel, which most producers opt for because it retains the variety's aromatic, fruity aromas, or in oak barrels, which give flavours such as vanilla, cloves and smoke and encourage the development of honey and nutty flavours with age. New Zealand Winegrowers reports increasing diversity of styles through wild ferments, degrees of lees contact, and fermentation and/or ageing in oak, both old and new. WSET adds that Sauvignon Blanc is not usually blended, but some winemakers blend it, most commonly with Sémillon; top Bordeaux producers in Graves AOC or Pessac-Léognan AOC often put a percentage of their wine into oak and blend it with a small amount of Sémillon. In California, Jancis Robinson describes a style of full-bodied, slightly sweet Sauvignon, often enriched by oak ageing and typically called Fumé Blanc, and a Decanter WSET Level 2 article notes that Fumé Blanc is widely credited to Robert Mondavi. The OIV notes that Sauvignon Blanc can also be used to produce high-quality dessert wines, and Jancis Robinson gives the most common blend for a sweet white Sauternes or Barsac as four parts Semillon and one part Sauvignon.

• Most wines fermented at relatively low temperatures in stainless steel and made to be drunk young (Jancis Robinson)
• Oak adds vanilla, cloves and smoke, and honey and nutty flavours with age (WSET)
• Most common blending partner: Sémillon (WSET)
• Sauternes or Barsac: four parts Semillon to one part Sauvignon as the most common blend (Jancis Robinson)

Jancis Robinson cites as the best upper Loire examples the Pouilly-Fumé of Domaine Didier Dagueneau and Baron de Ladoucette and Sancerre from Henri Bourgeois, Lucien Crochet and Vincent Pinard, which she describes as drier, denser and slower-maturing than most New World Sauvignon Blanc. Her typical examples of highly regarded Sauvignon Blanc also include Cloudy Bay and Dog Point in Marlborough, Les Belles Dames and Henri Bourgeois' D'Antan in Sancerre, Didier Dagueneau's Silex in Pouilly-Fumé, Henri Pellé in Menetou Salon, PHI Lusitania Park in Yarra Valley, Shaw + Smith in Adelaide Hills, Araujo Eisele Vineyard in Napa Valley and Babcock Vineyards in Santa Barbara. For the substantial dry, oak-aged whites of Graves and Pessac-Léognan, she names Ch Couhins-Lurton as a rare all-Sauvignon example, alongside the all-Sauvignon Pavillon Blanc de Château Margaux.

• Pouilly-Fumé: Domaine Didier Dagueneau, Baron de Ladoucette (Jancis Robinson)
• Sancerre: Henri Bourgeois, Lucien Crochet, Vincent Pinard (Jancis Robinson)
• Marlborough: Cloudy Bay, Dog Point (Jancis Robinson)
• Bordeaux: Ch Couhins-Lurton, Pavillon Blanc de Château Margaux (Jancis Robinson)

Jancis Robinson writes that South Africa makes some delicious Sauvignon Blanc and that in the cooler coastal Overberg region the wines can offer an attractively smoky halfway house between New Zealand and the Loire. A Decanter WSET Level 2 article notes that on South Africa's Western Cape the cooling influences of Constantia and Elgin give them a reputation for Bordeaux or New Zealand-esque Sauvignon Blancs: those following the New Zealand format tend to be lighter in body and less intense or complex, while the Bordeaux-style wines have more intense, herbaceous characters.

WSET describes Sauvignon Blanc as a very vigorous variety that needs to be planted on extremely poor soil to restrict vegetal growth and allow grapes to fully ripen; growers can also control vigour through rootstock selection or training systems, and heavy pruning allows better air circulation and increases exposure to sunlight. The OIV characterises it by an average budburst period and early flowering, as a highly vigorous variety with low fertility and small clusters that are prone to coulure. The OIV adds that it is extremely susceptible to powdery mildew and black rot, and to a lesser extent downy mildew and botrytis, that it is also susceptible to grapevine trunk diseases, and that it yields between 5 and 10 t/ha. Bordeaux.com notes its small clusters and thick-skinned berries and that it is sensitive to noble rot. Vins de Loire calls it a fragile and demanding grape variety that adapts to temperate and semi-continental climates, with soils of chalk, limestone and flinty clay.

• Very vigorous; needs extremely poor soil (WSET)
• Extremely susceptible to powdery mildew and black rot (OIV)
• Yields between 5 and 10 t/ha (OIV)

https://www.vivc.de/index.php?r=passport%2Fview&id=10790 https://www.vivc.de/index.php?r=passport%2Fview&id=1929 https://www.oiv.int/public/medias/5888/en-distribution-of-the-worlds-grapevine-varieties.pdf https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2020/may/01/understanding-grapes-spotlight-on-sauvignon-blanc https://www.nzwine.com/en/winestyles/sauvignonblanc/ https://www.nzwine.com/en/regions/marlborough/ https://www.wineaustralia.com/market-insights/regions-and-varieties/sauvignon-blanc https://www.bordeaux.com/en/grape-varieties/sauvignon-blanc/ https://www.vinsdeloire.fr/en/grape-varieties/sauvignon-blanc Last verified 2026-09-29