2017 Sauvignon Blanc, Vom Opok, Werlitsch, Steiermark, Austria

Weingut Werlitsch

Austria

If your car ever gets frozen stuck in mid-winter in the wine-growing districts around Vienna, you're unlikely to receive much help. The famous anti-freeze scandal in 1985 almost destroyed the whole wine industry there: exports to England plummeted from 100,000 cases in 1985, to just 7,000 cases by 1989.

These days, however, the Austrian wine industry is in rude health. With the strictest quality control system in the world, the producers cut no corners in making excellent-quality wines across a range of styles from both local and international varieties. The dry, steely Rieslings are outstanding, as are the surprisingly ripe, concentrated reds, not to mention the dessert wines from Neusiedlersee.

The quality and diversity of Austrian wine is just too good to ignore, and so we are delighted to reintroduce some of the very best examples into our list. Exciting and underrated, the country boasts wonderful indigenous varieties such as Grüner Veltliner, allied to a complex stylistic patchwork which effortlessly runs the gamut from sweet to dry. This is a country that has everything, including top class Chardonnays which often outperform the best white Burgundies in blind tastings.

Key established regions: Burgenland(Neusiedlersee), Lower Austria (Kamptal, Kremstal and Wachau)

Sauvignon Blanc

An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp  Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.

It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.

In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.

It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.