Diary of a Shopkeeper, 5th May 2024
Sir Thomas Urquhart, looking like a good Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc smells
Friday 3rd May was International Sauvignon Blanc Day, when wine lovers around the world were encouraged to choose a glass of everyone’s favourite aromatic white wine. Or rather, wine merchants were encouraged by various trade bodies to nudge their customers in that direction. These marketing-led ‘Day of…’ promotions veer between the reasonable and the incredible. Did you know that June 25th is World Goat’s Cheese Day? A great product that deserves more celebration! But who gets excited at February 23rd, International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day? More likely the sales department of Pedigree Chum than any Scapa, Tyson or Fido. And really, isn’t every day Sauvignon Blanc Day? It certainly is in our shop, where the variety has been our best-selling white wine for at least five years. Its popularity is driven above all by the success of New Zealand Sauv Blancs, with their explosions of fruit aromas, and their clean, crisp finish.
But ancient heroes of the Sauvignon world like Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé remain popular amongst our more traditionally minded customers. They tend to be more restrained on the nose, but rewardingly complex on the palate, with layers of flavour reflecting the terroirs of the upper Loire Valley where they originate. This relatively cool area of central France, just a couple of hours south of Paris, is likely to be where the grape originated. The first written references to it were in the novel La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua by François Rabelais, published in 1534. Rabelais was born in Chinon in the Loire, and celebrated the food and drink of his native area so enthusiastically that we still use the word Rabelaisian to describe any outbreak of wild feasting and drinking.
An almost local connection is that the first and greatest translator of Rabelais was Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty – an adventurer and eccentric of the highest order, an account of whose often startling and occasionally sensible ideas could fill several Diaries. Published in 1653, his Gargantua was not only a translation of the original, but an expansion, increasing its word count by a third, with lists, descriptions and barely relevant digressions. Rather like this one.
Back to Sauvignon Blanc! And back to happy memories of a trip to New Zealand in 2017. Kirkness & Gorie had won an award for being one of the top retailers of NZ wine in the UK, with the prize being a three-week trip to visit its main wine-producing areas. It was like an express university degree in one of the world’s great wine countries. There were no days off, in fact barely an hour off: from morning vineyard and winery visits, to comparative tastings of 20 or 30 examples of individual varietals in the afternoon, to evening meetings and dinners with leading winemakers, it was exhausting but exhilarating. And highly educational. If I wax lyrical about Marlborough or Central Otago in the shop, it’s because I’m channelling the spirit of February 2017.
One of the memories that comes back sharp and clear is of a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. After a day in Wellington at a Pinot Noir conference, tasting and spitting dozens of red wines, scrawling hundreds of words of descriptions and assessments, by 9pm it was finally time to relax. I met up with some fellow retailers and sommeliers and we went – where else? – to a wine bar, to sit back and finally treat a glass of wine as something to drink and enjoy rather than be spat out and analysed.
Some ordered a full-bodied red, some a Vintage Port – both suitably climactic nightcaps. But I was drawn irresistibly towards a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. I needed something that had an enticing and bold aroma to wake up my weary senses. And I needed something bright and sharp to cleanse my palate. If it had some complexity to give me sensations to muse over as I reflected on a wonderful but overwhelming day, so much the better. And nothing could have been better than 125ml of Kevin Judd’s Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc. It wasn’t May 3rd, but for me that warm Wellington Thursday seven years ago will always be the ultimate Sauvignon Blanc Day.
This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 9th May 2024. A new diary appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.