Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2006

I am not one who is usually into whites. However, a good friend of mine was raised on white wine and never drank reds until I convinced him otherwise. Part of this process involved each of us bringing a bottle (or 2) of our favourite red/white and using it to convince the other to switch allegiences. I'm happy to say that while I wasn't converted to whites, I gained a new appreciation for them, and this wine was one of the ones he brought over. I just had it again, and it lives up to the memory.

The wine is quite pale, even for a sauv blanc; however it still has a lot of character and body. The nose is powerful and pretty grapefruity. The palate is strong on the grapefruit/pomelo with a nice hint of passion fruit. The wine has a lovely buttery texture, but not like cheap crappy over-oaked chardonnay. I believe the original wine makers at Cloudy Bay have moved on to other projects, but I think their legacy is still quite good (although I've heard not as good as it used to be). Given how much I like this wine, I'm going to seek out their new premium winery project (Dog Head I think...). Anyhow, the wine has a nice finish and a firm yet not overbearing structure. Well worth it.

Excellent
$35 at BCLDB