Winemaker Notes
#60 Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2019
Bright with golden green hues. Hints of yellow. Slight grassiness with chive, lime zest, layered with a slight hint of gunflint, straw and white peach. Rich, tight, lean and full with layers of slate, lime, green melon, tropical hints and lemongrass. Mouthwatering.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Crisp pear flesh, lemon rind and white-flowers show on the nose of this always zesty, refreshing bottling by Doug Margerum. There’s a stony grip to the sip, where citrus and Asian pear flavors compete for attention against the tremendously chalky texture.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and vibrant, offering a mouthwatering mix of lime, white grapefruit and lemon sherbet flavors, set on a light and crisp frame. Impressively precise and focused, with a touch of minerality sneaking in on the finish. Drink now.
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Jeb Dunnuck
There are two Sauvignon Blanc releases. Starting with the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Sybarite, it offers fruit-forward notes of white grapefruit, citrus, and sappy herb notes in its medium-bodied, supple, deliciously charming style. Drink it over the coming year or three.
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
On the eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, the rolling hills of the tiny Happy Canyon AVA produce top quality reds from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and whites from Sauvignon blanc. The region’s low-nutrient soil grows smaller vines and in turn, higher quality wine grapes.