Rombauer Sauvignon Blanc Tasting Notes: 2016

I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram.  I love seeing everyone’s photos, but I hate that I can’t use Instagram on my laptop.  Typing with my index finger on my phone, is so t-e-d-i-o-u-s. I mention this only because I started to put my review of Rombauer’s 2016 Sauvignon Blanc on my Instagram page, but quickly gave up.  I suspect Instagram does this on purpose — more photos, less words. So, blog it is.

2016 Rombauer Sauvignon Blanc Tasting Notes /90

This is just the third vintage of Sauvignon Blanc produced by Rombauer, and only the second white wine in its 37-year history.  This is also the first Rombauer wine under a screw cap.  Blissfully, screw cap stigmas are dissolving, as they come to represent freshness instead of plonk. Sauvignon Blanc likes to be cool and comfy, and the fruit for this wine comes from cool sites in the Pope Valley (in the Mayacamas Mountains in northern Napa).  The grapes were hand-picked at dawn (anyone who is hand picking grapes at dawn is putting a lot of effort into their wines).  90% of the wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks and the remainder in neutral French oak.  The stainless brings freshness, the oak brings structure. Tasting Note:  Pale lemon with a tinge of green.  Lemgralime (lemon-grapefruit-lime).  There’s a fruit that really ought to exist, because that’s exactly what this wine smells like.   Just enough of an herbal tinge running throughout to make things interesting without being overwhelming.  Flavors of lemon, lime, grapefruit, kiwi and peaches.  A shy  honeysuckle on the finish.  Exciting, refreshing acidity.  Paired beautifully with steamed artichokes and garlic aioli.  14.2% ABV.  Retail = $24. It’s going to be another H3 (hazy, hot and humid) day in Virginia today.  I wish I had another bottle of this, for refreshment. Salud!