All the medallists from the Sauvignon Blanc Masters 2023

After last year’s herbal and grassy wines, the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc Global Masters put the accent firmly on ripe, juicy fruit, as Siobhan Turner MW reports.

A bright, sunny September day provided a fitting setting for tasting Sauvignon Blanc, and the warmth of the sunshine seemed to bring out the ripeness and juiciness of the wines. Last year, the overall style seemed more herbal and grassy; this year, tropical fruit notes came to the fore. Nevertheless, there was a wide range of styles, from restrained grassy and mineral wines, to gooseberry, and ripe, tropical passionfruit.

Many wines had a slight touch of reduction – just enough to add a hint of flintiness and textural grip, and where this was not overdone these wines were greatly appreciated. It was also particularly encouraging to note that there was much less residual sugar being used this year; the wines were able to stand on their own, and were allowed to.

We tasted 143 different wines with, as one might expect, the majority from New Zealand (50) and Chile (24). Nevertheless, there were entries from 14 different countries, and medals awarded to 12, including Moldova. Perhaps most gratifying was the wide range of representation in the Gold- and Masters winning wines. As expected – and deserved – New Zealand dominated, with 16 of the 20 Golds awarded, but it was a true delight to see a wine from Turkey, Chamlija’s delicious Quartz Fumé, from the stunning Strandja Mountains region, included in this list.

Perhaps a testament to the dominance of screwcaps, but also to the careful attention to winery hygiene, there were no overtly faulty wines, although we did wonder if a few were showing some evidence of light strike. However, it was disappointing that 16 wines – a little over 10% – were not medal-worthy, particularly in that there were some usually very reliable producers included in this list, from normally “safe” countries (New Zealand, Chile, Australia). And after last year ’s stunning success with Gloucestershire’s Woodchester Valley Vineyards winning a Master medal, our judges were disappointed not to see any English wines in the tasting.

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