Wine Blogging Wednesday #55: North vs. South
by Paul Arthur on Mar.18, 2009, under white wine, wine
The Mission: [C]omparing how more northerly and more southerly vineyards produce different results with the same grapes.
Being from Michigan, the natural choice for North was to go with a local wine, so I rummaged around and found a bottle from St. Julian. St. Julian is Michigan’s oldest winery, and is also the largest. They source grapes from a large number of growers, all of which are located within 50 miles of the winery.
For South, I turned to the sunny climes of California. Honig is located in Napa Valley (Rutherford, to be precise) and has a terrible Flash-infested front page that refuses to work on my computer.
Charts comparing climates (as always, click for a larger version)
In short: Michigan doesn’t get quite as warm or stay warm for as long, while California is a lot drier during the growing season.
Honig Sauvignon Blanc 2007: Brix at harvest 23.6, 97.6% Sauvignon Blanc and 2.4% Semillon. Aging was 33% neutral oak, 67% stainless steel. 13.5% ABV.
Braganini Reserve 2007 Sauvignon Blanc: Brix at harvest 20.8, 100% Sauvignon Blanc. Aging was 100% stainless steel. 12% ABV.
Blind(ish) tasting time! Wine A is much darker than Wine B, so I’m actually fairly certain which is which right off the bat.
Nose: A is musky and citrusy, while B is lighter, sweeter, and very tropical.
Taste: A is still quite citrusy, but some mango and peach show up, with an overall impression of stodginess. B fruitier but lighter and still leaning toward the tropical with maybe a hint of lime, but also some slight alcohol notes. Both exhibit similar amounts of acidity.
Overall: Both are nice crisp wines, with A being a bit more robust for standing up to food but B edging ahead for sipping by having a cleaner flavour profile and more liveliness.
And the reveal: As I suspected, A is North and B is South.
March 25th, 2009 on 12:12 PM
[...] A Flowery Song is the name for Paul Arthur’s blog, and the place where he posted about our second Michigan wine, a sauvignon blanc, with its counterpart from Rutherford, in Napa, even using comparative charts to do his full analysis. [...]