2017 Round Pond Estate Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford 750 ml

Masterful Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc

Balance, precision, and vibrancy are the hallmarks you’d expect from a great Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. But in the hands of Thomas Rivers Brown, a 25-time 100-point winemaker, those characteristics take on new meaning, new layers, and stunning complexity. Under his direction, workers at Round Pond make three separate passes in the vineyards to harvest grapes at the apex of their ripeness. The 2017 Round Pond Sauvignon Blanc is a blend of Rutherford estate fruit — Loire clones and a rare Sauvignon Musque clone, which adds a heady pop of aromatics. Today, a wine of this caliber, from such a credentialed producer and premium vineyard land should cost $60 and above. 

For long-time Wine Access devotees the Round Pond name will be quite familiar. Anyone who has popped a cork on their exquisite Rutherford Cabernets  knows that winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown and the Round Pond team bring exceptionally high quality wine with serious value — perhaps none more so than their Sauvignon Blanc from their Rutherford estate. On this first for Wine Access, we’ve secured a parcel of this mouth-watering Sauvignon Blanc crafted by a winemaker that the Wall Street Journal’s Jay McInerney has called, “the most successful winemaker in California.”

Brown’s 25-time 100-point wines makes it hard to argue with that assessment.

And if you have a terroir that makes great Cabernet Sauvignon, it only follows that you’d consider planting its white parent grape, Sauvignon Blanc. In Bordeaux, they often grow side by-side with top properties producing both Grand Vin in rouge and blanc (see: Aile d’Argent from Mouton-Rothschild, Pavillon de Margaux Blanc, Cos d’Estournelle Blanc or Haut-Brion Blanc).

Given the generosity of the Napa Valley sunshine, the Round Pond team chose to eschew the added richness of oak, raising this wine completely in stainless steel to provide a core of powerful, vibrant fruit balanced by sublime refreshment. Additionally, Brown includes the rare Sauvignon Musque clones in the vineyards, for an additional heady pop of aromatics next to the tried-and-true Clone 1 — the backbone of other top Napa Sauvignon Blancs.

Great winemakers make great wine, period, regardless of a grape’s color. Thomas Rivers Brown has a practically unmatched track record for producing great wines. Handled back-to-front with the same attention to detail as the pampered Round Pond reds, one sip of this Sauvignon Blanc will have any die-hard red drinker singing the praises of the sheer complexity and drinkability presented by the world’s greatest white wines.

Jonathan Cristaldi

Editor-in-Chief, Wine Acces