Great Wine: Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc

By Johannes Marlena

There is a lake in northern Yosemite National Park called Cathedral Lake. It’s a 7-mile hike from the main road at Tuolumne Meadows. Along the way in midsummer, there are streams to cross due to the slow-melting snow and ice caps off the granite mountains as well as passing through some of the most bucolic and pastoral scenery Northern California has to offer. Although a rather arduous journey for a casual hiker, once you arrive at Cathedral Lake, at an elevation of over 10,000 feet, the air is exquisitely clean and crisp, and the silence of nature is magical. The lake itself is so placid, blue and serene, but seen through the wide angle lens of two human eyes, and taking in the monuments of granite that surround the lake, the scene becomes grand and majestic and powerful—suggesting, as does the lake’s namesake, a holy place. If silence and peace are the inner qualities of holiness, then the 2014 SPOTTSWOODE Sauvignon Blanc is my cathedral. So focused, so clear, so crisp, so precise, so serene a white wine you want to skip stones over it just to see the ripples. But, like yelling out a confession into the wide open space from lakeside, the Spottswoode reverbs back your voice with weighty significance on its powerful finish. There is power in clarity, in focus, in achieving inner peace.  –J.M.

 

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July 12, 2015