Asian Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling Masters 2017: the results

The consistency of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and the diversity of Riesling impressed a panel of expert judges at our latest Asian Masters, underlining the two white grape varieties’ immense market potential in Hong Kong.

Judges from left to right: Amanda So, department manager at Ponti Trading Ltd; Tersina Shieh, independent wine consultant and wine judge; Sarah Wong, freelance wine writer and judge; Ivy Ng, publisher of the drinks business Hong Kong; Peter Nicholas, winemaker and general manager of Boutique Wines Hong Kong; Nellie Ming Lee, wine consultant; William Chan, sommelier and manager of Cuisine Cuisine; and Jeremy Stockman, general manager of Waton’s Wine and Natalie Wang, online editor of the drinks business Hong Kong

Riding the wave of the growing popularity of white wines in Hong Kong, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, two aromatic white varieties, are tempting discerning drinkers who are looking beyond all-rounded Chardonnay for varietal diversity, although the latter still remains the most popular white wine variety in the local market, accounting for more than 60% of total white wine sales.

Capable of adapting to different terroir, Sauvignon Blanc can produce wines of vibrancy, freshness and zippy acidity when grown in the cool to moderate climates of the Loire Valley, Northern Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and South Africa. Its flavour profile ranges from herbaceous notes of gooseberry, green bell pepper and fresh cut grass to riper tropical aromas of passion fruit and pineapple, in addition to toasty notes for those fermented in barrel.

Riesling, on the other hand, is a white variety that has a broader style spectrum making everything from sparkling wine to still wine on a wide scale of sweetness, from off-dry to some of the most luscious in the world. Among all the 46 samples submitted for our Riesling competition, none were oaked, but they represented all of the major Riesling producing countries, with Australia, Germany and Austria leading the pack.

“I found that the best wines to be those that showed regional characteristics rather than those that appeared to be copying a more international style,” winemaker and wine educator Peter Nicholas commented.

“In today’s market place homogeneity is something to be avoided and authenticity to be lauded.”

More encouragingly for the consumers, both in the Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling categories, well-priced wines bagged the most medals; with several of the Gold medal winners costing under HK$400 a bottle.

“I think the wines are really good, especially for the Sauvignon Blanc flight and great value for money for these lower priced wines. Both are quite good, well presented, maybe one or two wines are not so typical, but in general, the wines showed great typicity,” said Tersina Shieh, an independent wine consultant – a comment William Chan, manager of Cuisine Cuisine, heartily agreed with.

Held on 26 June at the award-winning Cuisine Cuisine restaurant inside the Mira Hotel, the wines were served blind and assessed by eight experienced judges, including Hong Kong’s top wine buyers, educators and consultants. The wines were arranged not according to country but by their price band as well as style – oaked or unoaked, their sweetness (in the case of Riesling) and whether they were a blend or pure varietal expression – to make the competition as fair as possible.

New Zealand Benchmark  

Jeremy Stockman, general manager of Watson’s Wine, the biggest wine retailer in Hong Kong

Although the Loire is the birthplace of Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand is where the grape has found a spiritual home, and the country’s wine industry and international reputation was built on the white grape variety.

Different from the Loire’s greener, more savoury style, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is known for being more on the fruity, aromatic side that packs more pungent aromas of grapefruit, gooseberry, passion fruit and other tropical fruits.

Style wise, it would be erroneous to dismiss New Zealand Sauvignon as a one-trick-pony producing only fruity and aromatic dry whites. In fact, in addition to some regional diversity the grape is very versatile, capable of making lusciously sweet wines, more substantial dry whites when blended with Semillon and even sparkling wines made usually using the traditional method.

Among the two Masters and seven Gold medal winners, out of a flight of 33 Sauvignon Blanc samples judged, six – one Master and five Gold medals – unsurprisingly came from New Zealand, primarily Marlborough.

“The very good Sauvignon Blanc that I saw was what I expected of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is consistency,” commented Jeremy Stockman, general manager of Watson’s Wine, the biggest wine retailer in Hong Kong.

Compared with Riesling, Sauvignon is more predicable in a sense in terms of style and quality, Stockman added. “A Muscato can be horribly sweet and dry, whereas a Sauvignon Blanc in particular, you know what you are going to get. It’s just about the style you like and quality. And I think people like about that,” he added speaking of the variety’s potential in Hong Kong.

In terms of pricing, he believes it’s easier to find better quality Sauvignon Blanc in the market than Chardonnay of the same price band. “Chardonnay tends to be excellent on more expensive level. And with cheap Chardonnay, you see a lot of poor examples,” he explained.

Indeed, five of the seven Gold medal winners are priced under HK$200 (US$25.6) a bottle, with one – The Crossing Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 – below HK$100 (US$12.8).

Among the high performing Kiwi samples, Framingham Sauvignon Blanc 2016, a classic Marlborough Sauvignon from Wairau Valley at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, was awarded the highest honour of a Master. The Crossings Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 and Mud House Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016 impressed judges with their perfumed and refined aromas that landed them Gold medals. Equally impressive were Peter Yealands Sauvignon Blanc 2016 and Yealands Estate Land Made Sauvignon Blanc 2016. Both are stellar examples of classic New Zealand Sauvignon and each was rewarded with a Gold medal as well.

Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc 2015, a more ambitious barrel fermented Sauvignon, stunned the judging panel with its complexity and layers of flavours, a style more reminiscent of Sancerre.

Speaking of the grape’s current market in Hong Kong, Amanda So, department manager of wine merchant Ponti, noted that discerning consumers are looking beyond the obvious Sauvignon style.

“Customers nowadays are starting to look for more complex Sauvignon Blanc with high skill treatment, not just the easy going, food friendly Sauvignon Blanc,” she stated.

Other regions:

All the wines were tasted blind by the judges and assessed by their variety and price at Cantonese restaurant Cuisine Cuisine in Mira Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Outside of New Zealand, the Kiwi-coined fresh, intensely perfumed style with zesty acidity was also found in cool climate regions in Chile, Australia and the US.

Chile’s San Antonio in Casablanca, particularly the Leyda Valley, stood out among its peers, while in Australia, Tasmania, Yarra Valley and Adelaide Hills also left clear marks on the variety. Bird in Hand Sauvignon Blanc 2017 from Adelaide Hills, for instance, despite its youthful age, already showed a lot of potential with its intense aromas and mineral edges, for which it won a Gold medal.

From California, where Sauvignon Blanc is occasionally known as ‘Fumé Blanc’, it was the toasty flavours and fuller body that took precedent and had the judges talking. Stonestreet Estate Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from Alexander Valley in Sonoma County won the judges over for its complexity and weight, and its price also reflected the extra efforts in the cellar, moving up to the HK$300 (US$38.4) to HK$399 (US$51) price bracket.

“American Fumé Blancs, a Sauvignon Blanc that is usually barrel fermented, so is less acidic, more creamy and sometimes smokey, are most enjoyable with their voluptuous lemon curd-like flavours,” commented Nellie Ming Lee, a Hong Kong-based wine consultant.

Outside of Loire, across the Alps, Sauvignon Blanc has found success in northern Italy’s Alto Adige, Friuli and Collio with the best examples showing pungency and purity of fruit. A few Italian producers have also opted for oak to give more texture and body as seen in Attems’ ‘Cicinis DOC Sauvignon Collio 2015’.

Encouragingly, Greece has been churning out top-winning examples of Sauvignon Blanc in recent years, led by Alpha Estate in northern Florina. The winery’s single vineyard ‘Kalyva’, an oaked 100% Sauvignon Blanc, won a Master, leaving a few of the judges stumped over its origin.

“I was surprised by the wines from Greece. It is positive that we have new wine regions to choose from in Hong Kong. The wines from the classic regions showed great typicity to their origin and variety,” stated Sarah Wong, a freelance wine writer in Hong Kong.

Riesling 

William Chan, general manager of Cuisine Cuisine (left), and Peter Nicholas, winemaker and WSET wine educator (right)

Compared with Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling has earned a reputation for its longevity, and its ability to transmit terroir without losing its varietal typicity, whether planted on the steep sites of the Mosel, Austria, Alsace or Australia.

Out of 45 samples judged, 43 went home with a medal, of which two were given the grand accolade of Master and seven were awarded Gold medals, a testament to the grape variety’s quality in every price band.

It is a wine variety that German winemakers have mastered and perfected over the years from bone dry, steely versions to botrytis-affected Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA). Judging by the entries of the competition, there were 16 samples from Germany, with two sweet versions winning Gold medals, both from Germany’s leading producer Dr Loosen; a classic Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Qualitätswein trocken GG 2015 and Dr Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2016.

However, this time at the competition, it was Austria that outperformed its more famed neighbour in the Riesling category, bringing home two Gold medals and a Master title.

The most prized Austrian Rieslings are dry, full-bodied, concentrated and aromatic with Wachau being the best-known region internationally. But neighbouring sites in Kamptal and Kremptel are also producing clean, pure expressions of the grape, as affirmed by the Master-winning Weingut Nigl Riesling Kremstal DAC Reserve Privat Senftenberger Pellingen 1ÖTW 2015.

Two dry Rieslings from Kamptal’s Bründlmayer winery – Weingut Bründlmayer Riesling Kamptal Terrassen and Weingut Bründlmayer Riesling Heiligenstein Alte Reben – also won Gold medals.

Moving on to the New World, Australia proved to be the biggest winner, producing age-worthy dry Rieslings with an underlying, racy minerality and pronounced fruit, though less alcoholic and phenolic compared to samples from Alsace or Austria.

Its best known sites in Clare Valley, Eden Valley and other cooler sites in Tasmania are producing wines with impressive longevity. St. Andrew’s Riesling from Clare Valley, an unoaked dry Riesling in the HK$200-HK$299 (US$25.6 -US$38.3) price bracket, impressed the judges with its zesty citrus aromas, its harmonious balance of acidity, alcohol and fruitiness. Two of McGuigan’s Shortlist Rieslings – the 2007 and 2009 vintages – won over the judges with their purity of fruit and sell for less than HK$199 (US$25.5) a bottle.

Residual sugar 

Overall, dry Rieslings shone through in this competition although sweet versions including the three Gold-medal winning wines – two from Dr Loosen one from Washington State’s St. Michelle winery – stood out from the crowd, impressing the judges with their balance between sweetness and acidity.

“The New World and Old World Rieslings are still showing a good depth of acidity. There was more residual sugar found in the Old World selections, while the New World samples tended to be drier”, stated William Chan based on the samples at the competition.

There were two examples of Riesling where the residual sugar might have been mislabelled or at least entered in the wrong bracket, as a couple of judges noted, a problem that underlines the point that residual sugar level in Rieslings can be even more confusing for consumers. 

Tersina Shieh, wine consultant (left), and Sarah Wong, freelance wine writer (right) sharing a laugh during judging

“If you are a consumer who doesn’t know much about Riesling or a style you like, when you look over a shelf, you will have no idea what to buy, what style you are going to get,” said Stockman.

“Some producers do put a scale of sweetness on the back label. I am encouraging supermarkets such as Park ‘N’ Shop to put stickers to indicate sweetness. That will help”.

This is also echoed by Lee, who added that, compared with Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling is not a volume driver in the on-trade either, due to many consumers’ unfortunate perception that all Rieslings are sweet.

“A person who drinks wine may only like certain grapes and looks upon Riesling with horror as they perceive it to be a sweet grape – I think they were probably traumatised by a bottle of Blue Nun or Black Tower, both of which have a fair amount of residual sugars that can be quite cloying,” she explained.

Judges Profile:

Jeremy Stockman, a London native, is the general manager of Hong Kong’s biggest wine retailer Watson’s Wine. Stockman has built a formidable career in wine, running his own consultancy business in Australia before taking on his current stint at the Hong Kong retailer. Stockman previously worked for Coles Group in Australia, Vintage Cellars and Wine Rack in London and was a frequent judge for Australia’s most respected wine shows including the Royal National Wine Show, McLaren Vale Wine Show and Royal Sydney Wine Show.

Winemaker, Peter Nicholas, has amassed close to 30 years in the wine industry. A senior WSET wine educator specialising in Champagne and winemaking and viticulture, Nicolas has been teaching at Asia Wine Service and Education Center (AWSEC) in Hong Kong for seven years for WSET Level 3 and Level 4. Nicolas is also a Master of Wine candidate. 

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Tersina Shieh found her calling in wine industry in 2002 after quitting a career in marketing. A WSET level five Honours Diploma holder, Shieh has travelled to Portugal, South Africa, China, New Zealand and Australia to make wines. A seasoned wine judge, Shieh has judged at various wine competitions in Greater China region including the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, the Annual Wines of Chile Awards, Asia Wine Trophy, Veritas and Wine 100 (China) and now our Asian Masters competition series.

Sarah Wong is a freelance wine writer and judge. Her wine knowledge and expertise have developed through extensive education, tasting and competition judging. She has been a long-standing wine judge for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wines & Spirits Competition. Other than wine, Sarah’s passion lies in adventure travel, and she can often be found in the mountains of Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kyrygstan and the Himalayas. 

Amanda So is the department manager of Ponti Trading Co, one of the leading wine importers in Hong Kong. Having graduated with a Wine MBA degree from Kedge Business School in France, So has since been working in the wine business for over 16 years. Prior to joining Ponti in 2008, So was responsible for CRM project and purchasing wines from French, Italy, Spain, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in her previous roles and also took care of the wine investment project. She is responsible for wine sales and marketing department at Ponti.

Nellie Ming Lee, a Hong Kong-based sommelier and wine consultant, has worked as a food and wine consultant for Dairy Farm (Olivers, 360) and a wine ambassador for Jackson Family Wines. Lee is currently studying for Court of Master Sommeliers and aspires to one day be a Master Sommelier who can cook as well. She writes for South China Morning Post’s ‘The Corkscrew’ and Decanter, as well as food-styling for the SCMP Post magazine on Sundays.

Asian Sauvignon Blanc Masters

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Unoaked-100%

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Asian Riesling Masters

Sparkling

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Oaked-Dry

Unoaked-Medium Dry

Oaked-Medium Dry

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