Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2007 vs. Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2007
By Christian Eedes, 11 October 2010
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Screwcap. Fresher for longer.
To go with tomato and blue cheese tart for lunch yesterday, two bottle of Sauvingon Blanc 2007 from Elgin producer Iona, one closed with cork, the other screwcap. What was surprising about this exercise wasn’t that the two wines showed differently but just how marked the difference was. The wine under cork was significantly more developed being rich and broad in structure with pronounced tinned pea character on nose and palate; the wine under screwcap, meanwhile, was much more primary with lime flavour and lively acidity.
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Andrew Gunn12 October 2010
We supply our Mauritian market and The Champany Inn,a Michelin Star restaurant in Scotland with our SB under cork as Clive Davidson the owner refuses to have a screwcap wine in his establishment —-he even had a personal visit and plea from the MD of Cloudy Bay but to no avail!
Jamie Goode, from the UK, http://www.wineanorak.com, who was a guest speaker at the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group (SBIG) on Thursday last week, visited Iona on Friday to get a feel for Elgin. I showed him the 2006 Iona Sauvignon Blanc under cork and screwcap and we found much the same result. The screwcap was less developed and fresher with the cork showing a richer but yet still fresh mouthfeel —- the consensus was “screw the cap”!
At the end of the day Sauvignon is an aromatic variety and is very susceptible to cork taint and resultant bottle variation, so whilst a perfect uncontaminated cork would be first prize screwcap will give more consistency.
Andrew Gunn, Iona
Christian12 October 2010
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your comment. For what it counts, I preferred the 2007 under screwcap but I’m sure there would be people who’d like the greater evolution on the 2007 under cork.