5 May 2020
Belles Vignes Collection Sauvignon Blanc
So, I was meant to be busy doing a Mexican wine tasting for a virtual group, but they never materialised, as people don’t understand the Mexican wine industry. I know a goodish amount about it, but I’m not going to share that here, or at least not until I have a Mexican Savvy to write about. Anyway, so here I sit, still listening to KCRW after about 5 weeks or more, and still wondering about this new world we are living in. Meanwhile, I finished my dodgy day at 1830 near Trader Joe’s, so I popped in to buy the bag of Cheesy Poofs I had promised my increasingly irritable 11 year old. I confess, I’ve had this $5.99 Savvy before, but I sill cannot begin to provide any information regarding the provenance, considering the font is in the negative numbers, I’m old, and the label is went and distorted. Moreover, I have, once again, lost my favourite, blue Ray Ban reading glasses. Therefore, in addition to not being able to read labels, I’m also annoyed in general. Anyway, the above title about this behaving like cheap French, isn’t me slagging this wine off. I was actually luring you in to make a point about this. Yes, bad French wine exists. However, this is a perfect example of how by just using decently raised and handled grapes, from decent vines, in a sensible part of the world, can still produce a solid, unremarkable, yet unoffensive wine for $6.00 in the US. All said, this means the juice in this bottle probably cost less than a dollar at its source. Wow. However, in all likelihood, all of the land which produced these grapes has been owned and paid for for many years and generations. These vines are likely prolific in their production, mechanically harvested, and thrown into massive stainless steel fermenters. There is no oak, thank god, and there is no advertising costs at any level. Moreover, Trader Joe’s runs this through a shell company, and therefore the margins all along the way are very slim. So, what’s in the bottle? Well, light green appley, light herbs and lime, so far everything green, washed through with green citric acid, and river rocks and chalk. The apple notes are on the back end, occasionally showing a bit of green skin as a soft tannin. There is not much complexity, let alone layering, nor is there a stunning finish. The finish, isn’t short either, it just isn’t terribly inspiring in any way. The wine is naturally balanced, as it is too cheap for anyone to interfere, and because it is French, it is inherently planted in a place that produces balanced wine, and has done so for generations. This is a great Tuesday night wine, a decent second bottle of the night, and a rockstar for getting well pissed, and drink dialing ex lovers from 30 years ago.