2009 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley

Winemaker Matt Taylor described 2008 as a season of extremes, beginning with serious loss of crop due to spring frost. The berries were small, the amount of juice per ton of grapes was low, and the fruit was hard to extract, he said. The wine in the early going is brooding and tannic, consulting winemaker Francoise Peschon told me, adding that the 2007 and 2005 growing seasons here yielded a more elegant style of wine. I was struck again on this visit by the high quality of the estate's sauvignon blanc, which now includes little or no viognier. "Now our older vines don't need the expressiveness of viognier, which gave the wine an exotic signature," said consulting winemaker Francoise Peschon, noting that the dominant sauvignon musque component was already plenty aromatic.