G'day folks, Bren Carter here, Total Wine Traject and you're watching Wine for the People. It's deep-dark time and this time I'm braving one of the most polarizing grape varieties. Seven-yum block. Although a variety that many exclusively drink, they're about as many who forerosiously loathe it. The latter is probably likely due to the fact that it's one of the most commercially successful wines in the world. It has an unmistakable aroma and flavour, it's widely planted and cultivated globally from its origins in France, all the way to Far reaching New Zealand where it took on a life of its own, effectively putting the Kiwis on the world-bindless map and converting millions to the fresh, minimalist, white wine that Seven-yum Blanc has become known for. Now, let's get to how this happens. Seven-yum Blanc is another one of those varieties that has, I don't know, a bit of a muddy origin. The prevailing school of wisdom is that it originated in the Lourd Valley, being mentioned as far back as the 16th century. As a likely offspring of Seven-yum and that it's actually siblings to Shen and Blanc and True Soe. But there is another hypothesis out there that it's probably across between Shen and Blanc and Seven-yum. So still a bit of conjecture, but what we do know is that it is 100% native to the Lourd Valley and the common belief of it being a, I guess, original home in Bordeaux, has actually been completely disproven. This is important to note, as both the Lourd Valley and Bordeaux are known for very irreputable expressions of Seven-yum Blanc. Giving way to the fact that it's not just all cheap swill out there. There are a few styles of note, primarily the most internationally recognised quality Seven-yum Blanc, at least purely for the great variety, I would argue is Sonser. Sonser is pretty much slap bang in the middle of France far away from the ocean, giving it a, we'll call it a firmly continental climate. And what's particularly exciting about Sonser is the complexity in the soil. There are three distinct soil profiles around Sonser, Caillot, which are shallow soils over limestone. It makes a really brightly aromatic wine for youthful drinking, Sile, which are very flint riddle soils, producing wines with funl enough, flint aromatics, and teablons, which contain the same limestone and mullet you find in Chabley. You might be familiar with this if you're a bit of a wine nerd as Kimmerigian soils. And these are the most heralded soils and produce the most structured and ageworthy wines from the entire region. And it's this type of complexity that gives Sonser its reputation as being a very teoward-driven region. And Seven-yum Blanc is a variety, well often maligned, can actually translate these vast soil differences with crystalline expression. There are also a few other regions in Loire of Great Repute and Worth mentioning, but the main one I really want to center on is Puyu Fume, which produces more opulent styles than Sonser. As we get onto Bordeaux, where things take a turn for the expensive, yes for a white grape variety that is generally in the bargain bins the world over, Bordeaux produces some of the most spectacularly premium examples, and on token price point. Of course there you daily drive is out there, but these are some incredible whites, often very ripe, think like 14% alcohol, blended with Semi-on, often, and matured in Oak for extended periods that command obscene prices, most notably in Passe de Gagnon, where some of the most astronomically priced wines actually exist, think like Chateau Obrion, which leaps into the thousands of dollars. And the same can actually be said of Pavillon Blanc de Chateau Margot, where like Bruce Wayne money is required to afford this stuff. And oh yeah, don't forget the Semi-on-Blanc is actually made into the most celebrated sweet wine in the world, Chateau D'Qien, and they make a dry white actually at that estate, that's 100% Semi-on-Blanc. So I gotta say if it's good enough of them, it's probably gonna be good enough for you. Although now is probably the appropriate time that we mentioned New Zealand, and probably where the source for mixed feelings about Semi-on-Blanc kind of began. It was first planted in Marbury in 1973 with cuttings brought down from Hawks Bay, by the wine brand Montana, which we now know today is very quite a state. And this is well before the region had any meaning-flip sort of quality wines. They were still in their infancy, working with varieties like Militurgau and Shen and Blanc, but a few key events caused sort of a big flip in what they planted there. Firstly, there was a glut of wine with not enough consumption, versus the announcement that they actually produced. And for loxera, had made its way to New Zealand causing many vines to be actually ripped out. And at this time, Semi-on-Blanc was producing relatively high yields, growing in popularity, was making growers and the wine makers these amount of money. So when the new plantings on loxera resistant root stocks were considered, Semi-on-Blanc was pretty much at the top of the list. Now into stage, left, left, left. Cloudy Bay. The story of Cloudy Bay is a pair of New Zealand wine makers visiting Australia in 1983 and popped into Cape Mantell in Marbury River. Met with the wine maker David Honeyn. Now Cape Mantell is an iconic winery in Marg's being set up in the 70s by trio of families. The Honeyn's being one of them. So David was already a bit of a legend and after starting, you know, I guess one of the only of the third, I think it was the third established winery in the region. When he smelled this bottle of New Zealand's Savvy B, he was amazed. And in 1985, he started Cloudy Bay in Malbra, releasing the first ever Cloudy Bay, now since then it has become the, I guess, the preeminent example of Savvy B from Marbury and commands a pretty decent, like, 60 bucks of bottle. It then was imitated, I guess, by hundreds and hundreds and it's comfortably the number one planting in New Zealand that are whopping 15,700 hectares. And that's just in Marbury alone. Consider Pinot Noir. New Zealand's second most planted variety. Only has 5,000 hectares and that's for the entire country. Now the world has lapt up this style so much so that in the top 20 sold individual wines across the planet, there are 4 Marbury Savvy Unblancs. The highest ranking is actually Kim Crawford, followed by the legendary Moist Bay. This is generally where we help you guys with how to identify Savvy Unblanc in a blind tasting. And look, to be honest, with your run of the meal Savvy Unblanc, pretty much anywhere, you're probably going to easily be able to pick up on what it smells like. And the best description I've actually found comes from the respected MW and journalist Bob Campbell. He notes that it's like taking a bungee jump into a goose pre-bush. Now being polite, I'd actually call it passion fruit. And if I'm not, I'd call it asparagus and cat's pierce. It's searingly high in acidity with light body and texture, with pretty restrained alcohols, unless it's from Bordeaux, of course. Sunsair is, I guess, where it starts to get a little bit tricky because these wines tend to be quite elegant. Passion fruit and citrus are still going to be some of your key aromas. But if you're getting great mineral and flinty hints, maybe a bit of oak, you're most likely going to be in the lower. If you're game enough to swallow that pride and rewrite the Savvy Land to the refuew that you can rack your lips around that we recommend, and we've tested them too. For a bit more of an entry level, try dog point from Marbra. And don't worry, it's not what you think it is. Really good example, and I'll see you back probably in modest 30 bucks. How about some Bordeaux Blanc? No, we're not going to go too crazy on price. There are some decent value buys out there. Try the Chateau de Stéron Blanc, mostly Sav, a little bit of semi-on, but bloody good for a very modest $45.00. And for your benchmark, Sansaire, Francois Cotette. He's the real deal, Cuvé Paul, he's top Cuvé. It's named after his father and pretty spectacularly farmed. It's like very minimal handling, very little soul-ferring, can be the absolute apex from the region. Very, very amazing Savvy Land Blanc. Anyway, folks, thanks for hanging around. If you have, prove it to me with a comment below what's your viewer Savvy Land Blanc? What's the last one you had? And who did you share it with? If you like what we do, give us a thumbs up. If you love it, be sure to subscribe. And until next week, we'll be slaving away on more of these VR.