Sauvignon Blanc is a grape that hides nothing. It carries the flavour of where it grows, what it grows in, and how it was made — directly into the glass. Picked too late and it loses its lift. Picked too early and it tastes of nothing but grass. Done properly, on the right soil, it produces some of the most precise white wine in the world.
The collection is built around the two regions that taught the world what Sauvignon Blanc could be — the Loire's Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé — and Bordeaux, where Sauvignon is blended with Sémillon into the dry whites of Pessac-Léognan and beyond. France, on flint and limestone and gravel. The grape on its home ground.
What's listed is what we can buy in the right vintage at the right price. The names rotate. The standard does not.
The Loire
Sancerre
The eastern Loire, on the hill above the river — Kimmeridgian limestone in the western half of the appellation, flint (silex) in the east, terres blanches in the south. The same soils that run underneath Chablis, two hundred miles north. Sancerre at its best is taut, mineral and saline, with cut grass and white peach beneath. Outstanding with goat's cheese (the famous crottin de Chavignol is made within the appellation), shellfish, and lighter fish.
Pouilly-Fumé
Across the river from Sancerre, on the right bank. The name comes from the fumé — the smoky, gunflint character that comes off the wine on flint-rich soils. A touch more textural than Sancerre, often slightly riper, and one of the great food wines of France. The classic pairing is river fish — pike, perch, salmon — but it does as well with oysters or Coquilles Saint-Jacques.
Bordeaux Blanc
White Bordeaux is one of the most underappreciated categories in French wine. Sauvignon Blanc blended with Sémillon — the Sauvignon for lift, the Sémillon for weight and ageing potential — sometimes with a touch of Muscadelle for aromatics. Pessac-Léognan in the Graves is the most serious appellation; the classified estates there make whites that age for decades and pair with everything from oysters through to Bresse chicken in a cream sauce.
The lesser-known appellations of Bordeaux — Entre-Deux-Mers and beyond — also produce good dry whites at sensible prices. The whole category deserves more attention than it gets.
Wine & Food
Sauvignon Blanc is one of the most reliable food wines on the table. The grape's natural acidity cuts through fat; its grassy, herbaceous character flatters anything green; its mineral character matches the salt of shellfish. Sancerre with goat's cheese. Pouilly-Fumé with river fish. White Bordeaux with anything from oysters to roast chicken. Asparagus — notoriously hostile to wine — is one of the few green vegetables Sauvignon Blanc actually flatters.
Delivery
Next-working-day UK courier — or choose your preferred delivery date at checkout. Orders before 2pm dispatch same day. Wine can be ordered alongside food in the same delivery. Free weekday delivery over £225.
