12 best sauvignon blancs that taste like summer in a glass

It’s the wine that put New Zealand on the map, and rightly so. Nowhere else in the world produces a sauvignon blanc quite like it. And it’s one area in particular – Marlborough, on the tip of the southern island that has been entrancing the wine world since it gained the accolade of Best Sauvignon in the World in 1986. That particular wine came from Cloudy Bay and it’s still the leader of the pack, with this 2022 vintage full of the vibrant and vigorous passion fruit and gooseberry notes you’d expect, along with hints of peach and melon. A certified winner in anyone’s book.

From the westernmost tip of Western Australia – where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean – comes a wine with a name that’s as beguiling as its taste. Warm days and mild nights at Madfish Bay in the Margaret River wine region produce a wine that’s as fresh, zesty and memorable as any from this part of Australia. Grassy notes tempered by up-front flavours of gooseberry and pear, along with a pleasing flintiness, make this a perfect wine with which to greet an English spring or an early summer.

A crisp and refreshing sauvignon blanc from brothers Paolo and Giorgio Polegato, who run the prize-winning Val De Brun Estate in the heart of the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene wine zone in Italy’s Veneto region. It’s a wine that brings a touch of spice to the table, with hints of pepper and sage complementing luscious notes of ripe fruit and a pleasing acidity, making it a perfect accompaniment for seafood appetizers or a plate of prosciutto. It also come in a slightly squat but attractively shaped bottle.

British know-how and a centuries-old winemaking tradition have happily combined in the Cramele Recas estate near Romania’s third largest city, Timisoara, to produce an Eastern European sauvignon blanc that fully deserves its place among its Australian and New Zealand counterparts. Fresh citrus and gooseberry notes, along with a zesty acidity, make for an enlivening but elegant drink that’s perfect for a warm spring evening.

Here’s something different, and it’s nothing to do with safety glass. This Triplex marks the three different winemaking techniques used in the production of this sauvignon blanc from the Adelaide Hills wine region of South Australia. Harvested from a single vineyard, the grapes are split into three separate batches for fermentation: a concrete egg, to provide structure and depth; a French oak vat, to give an aromatic mouthfeel; and, finally, French 600l barrels for four days of full skin contact that offers creaminess and balance. The end result is an oaked sauvignon blanc with flavours of peaches and pears and subtle toasty oak notes that’s able to compete with similar wines from Bordeaux.

A crisp and elegant South African sauvignon blanc that’s sourced from vineyard parcels from various wine regions, including Stellenbosch, Franschoek and Paarl, thus adding a certain complexity to the wine. Handpicked early in the morning, the grapes then undergo eight hours of skin contact to enhance aromatic extraction before the juice is racked into the fermentation tanks for up to 40 days at low temperatures. Finally, it’s moved into stainless steel tanks for several months, with weekly lees stirring before bottling. The resulting wine is lemon-green in appearance, which reflects the flavours of lime, gooseberry, green fig and kiwi fruit that are obvious on the palate, offset by a defined minerality.

The two rivers in question are the Awatere and Wairau, and the convergence is the combination of the grapes that grow on both banks of these Marlborough waterways in New Zealand. The winery’s aim is to create inspiring wines with “elegance, purity and a sense of place” and it has to be said it’s succeeded, aided by the decision to ferment a portion of the wine in concrete egg tanks and clay amphora and then to age it on light yeast lees for three months. The outcome is a wine with a texture and a huge depth of flavour that encompasses lime, tropical fruit and peach with notes of coconut and flinty minerality.

Most of the sauvignon blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough wine region comes from the Wairau Valley in the north but this one’s from the Awatere Valley sub-region, where southerly and easterly breezes make it cooler, windier and drier, resulting in a later harvest. The flavours are more intense and accented too, with that inimitable strong fresh green fruit tang being accompanied by aromatic herbal notes and a nuanced and savoury acidity.

Head winemaker at Napa Cellars, Joe Shirley, believes that the terroir of California’s Napa Valley is so distinctive, his job is to simply “guide the wine toward the purest interpretation of the land”. That interpretation leads to a sauvignon blanc that, benefitting from the region’s warm days and cool nights, has those distinctive gooseberry and stone-fruit flavours harnessed to a bright and lively acidity and a prolonged finish. It’s one to enjoy with shellfish, young vegetables or a simple summer salad.

Let’s not forget that the sauvignon blanc originated in France – more specifically, in the Loire Valley. It was there in the villages of Sancerre and Pouilly that these aromatic and tangy dry white wines first made a name for themselves. Pouilly fumé ­– the names pays tribute to its smoky minerality – is made entirely from sauvignon blanc grapes. This example from a father-and-son team on a small family-owned estate has that smokiness along with fresh notes of white fruit and ripe pears. It’s equally rewarding as the typical Aussie and New Zealand wines on this list.

From a notable winery at Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island comes a sauvignon blanc that’s the product of two distinct vineyards. The first is Brightwater, 15km from the coast, where the vines grow amid boulders that retain the day’s heat. The second is the Queen Victoria vineyard, known for its orchards, kiwi fruit and hops. Together, they create a mouthwatering, fruit-forward wine with peach and tropical fruit flavours allied to a bright and crisp minerality. If you want freshness in a glass, this is the one to try.

A blend of sauvignon blanc from separate areas, this vin de France delivers crispness and flavour with a citrussy brightness on the tongue and welcome notes of gooseberry and green apple. Balanced and lively, it’s an ideal everyday drink to accompany a light lunch or an early summer picnic. The attractive label also commemorates (in Art Deco style) a celebrated muse of the Impressionist era.