Sauvignon Blanc (Russian River Valley)

Sitting neatly between state highways 101 and 116 in the heart of Sonoma, we find the center of Russian River Valley. Conveniently located minutes from Charles M Schulz Sonoma County Airport, it's an American Viticultural Area (AVA) known more for Pinot Noir and perhaps Chardonnay, but today we are here to taste Sauvignon Blanc.

Why here? I like the Sauvignon Blanc produced here and that is a good enough reason for me. 

What's so special about the Russian River Valley is its cooler climate wedged between lots of AVAs with much warmer ones. Sitting perhaps 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean at its border, the Valley is cooled by Pacific winds coming through the Petaluma Gap. This results in an almost daily morning fog before the afterrnoon heat. It's responsible for a much longer growing season as the grapes do not ripen as quickly as they do in other parts of Sonoma. 

In the winter, the area is prone to heavy rains that often flood the Russian River. The overflow, of course, keeps the grapevines healthy during the winter and the reamining water is available for irrigation during the summer.

The soil here is a volcanic sandstone loam, naturally fairly porous allowing for excellent drainage, although nearer the river, the soil is a bit more alluvial and particulate.

Since this is really Pniot Noir and Chardonnay country, only the winemakers on a mission and in love with the grape really want to produce Sauvignon Blanc here. So, when they do, we as consumers can be relatively certain they've put their heart and soul into it.

In many of these wines, we find significant additions of Sauvignon Musque, a clonal mutation of Sauvignon Blanc. As the name suggests, it is a muskier clone of the grape and adds a special character to the wine.

The typical wines here are barrel fermented in a mixture of new, used, and neutral oak, on lees (the dead yeast cells), and stirred frequently early in the process and less as the fermentation process continues. What this does is to create a fuller, denser body than is normally found in Sauvignon Blanc, but is very characteristic here.

Upon uncorking our bottles, we notice a variety of peach, honeydew melon, guava, lime, mango, and pineapple on the nose. On the palate, we taste a vanilla creme bruless with section of ripe ruby red grapefruit carefully placed on top.

After all this, I'm sure you need the perfect pairing for these wines. Try a Thai coconut fish soup accented with the kaffir lime often found in Thai food.