July 27, 2018

PATRICIA GREEN Sauvignon Blanc 2017

(Willamette Valley, Oregon) $24

Patricia Green was a free spirit in a wine region renowned for them. Nearly 20 years ago—when women rarely did this sort of thing—she left her job, gathered up her savings, bought a broken-down winery, and put her name on the door. Patty Green died in an accident this past spring. She and her partner Jim Anderson had just finished making this extraordinary wine, and I can’t help but think of it as her final gift to the wine world she loved. If sauvignon blanc is usually something of a wild girl, this sauvignon is the exact opposite—a wine of uncommon beauty and grace. A wine that’s utterly refined and exquisitely fresh. A tribute and a testament. And a wine you must taste. (13.7% abv)

92 points KM

Available at Patricia Green Cellars

Some winemakers are adding seawater to fermenting grapes in order to improve the wine’s longevity and amplify its flavors.

Answer: True.

As most wine drinkers know, wine can taste pleasantly salty—even when there’s no actual sodium chloride in it. Certain grape varieties, for example, can taste a bit salty (sangiovese is one), and wines made from grapes growing near a sea coast can, too. So maybe it was only a matter of time, but several winemakers in France and Portugal are now experimenting with adding salt to their wines, a practice that was described in ancient Roman texts. In particular, adding seawater was typical since it helped preserve the perishable beverage, in the same way that salt was used to preserve meat. Contemporary vintner Hervé Durand’s family estate, Mas des Tourelles, in the southern Rhône Valley, stands atop the remains of a Gallo-Roman winery. Known for his “Archeological Roman Wines,” Durand makes a version of Turriculae, a wine made from an ancient recipe that includes seawater as well as ground fenugreek and iris flowers. In Portugal, Port producer Dirk Niepoort learned of the practice from a traditional wine producer in the Azores and convinced fellow vintners Anna Jorgensen and Anselmo Mendes to join him in experimenting with salt. Filling their fermentation vessels to 1% seawater, they found the results had a tangy, saline flavor that gave “more life” to the wine without overly diluting it. “As it is common with food, a pinch of salt is important to ‘awaken’ other flavors,” says Mendes. He has a point.

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The percentage of sugar in Spain’s famous dessert wine Pedro Ximénez, making it one of the sweetest wines in the world. The extremely dark mahogany colored wine is so dense and syrupy it is sometimes… Continue reading

PATRICIA GREEN Sauvignon Blanc 2017

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