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June 2018 WINES&VINES 19 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS K elseyville, Calif.—Sauvignon Blanc rates high on the list of high-mainte- nance grape varieties. In the vineyard it's very vigorous, very susceptible to bunch rot and powdery mildew. In the winery it splits into multiple personalities with aromas as startling as cat-pee and struck flint. But Sauvignon Blanc has its advantages. It can grow in heavy, deep, clay soils and tolerate high magnesium levels in the soil like few other popular varieties. Growers in California and New Zealand can hang 8 tons or even 10 per acre and not get complaints from winemakers. Regarding the wine styles, there are consumer bases for each of its multiple personalities. Those are a few of the take-aways from an intense one-day, internationally accented sym- posium May 4 and a vineyard tour and public tasting on May 5 in Kelseyville, Lake County, Calif., where Sauvignon Blanc is a major force in the wine economy. Fourteen percent of all California Sauvignon Blanc grows here. The Sauvignon Blanc Experience was the third such major event in 16 years in Lake County. About 120 winemakers, grape growers and trade members took home numerous insights from a series of five presentations accompanied by tastings that sliced and diced the variety and varietal's diversity by clone, crop load, AVA, yeast and Brix levels. Grapes for the trial wines were grown largely in Mendocino and Lake counties and were vinified at the Univer- sity of California, Davis. Speaker John Buechsenstein is a veteran winemaker, an extension lecturer for the Uni- versity of California and instructor at the Cu- linary Institute of America. "We had to make Sauvignon Blanc taste like Chardonnay in the 1980s," due to consumer tastes and the popu- larity of the moniker Fumé Blanc that Robert Mondavi coined for oak-aged, buttery, full- bodied Sauvignon Blanc. "We have to thank the New Zealand produc- ers for showing the world that Sauvignon Blanc has character —that it is a character in fact," Buechsenstein said. "Each Sauvignon Blanc should express its terroir," he said. "Not too much trouble with that. It asserts itself and makes unique, terroir-driven wines everywhere." Almost everywhere, according to Gregory Jones, director of wine education at Oregon's Linfield College and a widely quoted authority on climate and wine. He said Sauvignon Blanc succeeds in a wide range of climates in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and else- where. Jones said the differences in Sauvignon Blanc internationally are driven largely by di- urnal temperature swings, which can vary from 18°F to 43°F between Europe and New Zealand on the low end and coastal and high-elevation areas of California on the high end. Host organization, Lake County Winegrape Commission, will share some speaker presenta- tions via sauvignonblancexperience.com. Wines & Vines plans to report on more research cited and tastings presented. — Jim Gordon Filter your wine on-premises with ATPGroup Mobile Services. We'll bring our state-of-the-art equipment for Lees Filtration or Cross-Flow Filtration to your winery. Best of all, we'll do all the work, all the cleanup. No muss, no fuss filtration. To find ouT whaT we can do for you, conTacT aTPgrouP aT (707) 836-6840 or online aT www.aTPgrouP.com aTP mobile Services ad_118-5-3_w&V Slicing and Dicing Sauvignon Blanc Wines Panelists in a viticulture session were, from left, Daniel Bosch of Constellation Brands, Phil Freese of WineGrow and David Weiss of Bella Vista Farming.