Winemaker Sam Weaver was in Toronto last week on a visit that coincided with the recent release of the 2011 Churton Sauvignon Blanc into the LCBO’s Vintages program. The wine has garnered 90 point scores from critic’s as diverse as Lisa Perrotti-Brown, John Szabo and Nathalie MacLean. And, while the tasting notes from these critics and more may diverge on particular tasting notes, they all seem to agree that the bio-dynamic Churton stands out among Marlborough, New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs for its balance and complexity. (I agree, and a bottle opened with friends on a Saturday afternoon visit, was enthusiastically enjoyed and remarked on: “What’s the name of that wine again?”.) The wine embodies, I think, a kind of platonic ideal of what New Zealand Sauvignon wine ought to be with pleasing notes of passion fruit and lime, without not so much gooseberry or grassiness. At $23.95, it breaks through that crucial $20 barrier, but on a quality to price ratio, I think it comes out highly.
I caught up with Sam Weaver to talk about his work at Churton at the offices of his Ontario wine agent, Le Sommelier to shoot the video below.
Can’t see the video? Click here.
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Malcolm Jolley is a founding editor of Good Food Revolution and Executive Director of Good Food Media, the company that publishes it. Follow him at twitter.com/malcolmjolley
