How now, brown gaauw?

Overgaauw 2008 Sauvignon Blanc (Stellenbosch) – Vibrant green things – herbs, stems, vegetables, leaves, grasses – poised at their ideal midpoint between the underripe harshness of pyrazines and softer impressions of tropicality (though there is a hint of pineapple as well). There’s minerality…large rocks, decidedly indelicate…and a fine balance. A bit outrageous, in a manner that will remind some quite strongly of Marlborough, but it’s fuller-fleshed than that. The more I taste, the more I agree with a number of South African winemakers who believe that, at the moment, their country’s most accomplished and terroir-revelatory wines are its sauvignon blancs. (7/09)