Raymond Vineyard & Cellar

While I bristle at the marketing department’s naming a $14 wine a “reserve,” I dare not complain one iota about the efficacy of the wine itself. That’s because it’s everything that a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc should be. I’ve long extolled the virtues of Sauvignons from the valley, an all-too-often overlooked varietal that gets lost in the Cabernet shuffle of the region.

It shows good minerality and some lime peel aromas with lush fruit and that same lime peel following on the palate. The wine is also a bit showy - perfectly charming, if not a little elegant. There’s excellent balance here, which is what I want in my SBs. The acidity – a listed 3.18 pH – is right on the money, while the listed alcohol registers a pleasing 13.9 percent.

The grapes were sourced from four vineyards around Napa Valley, including Moskowite near Napa, Conn Valley, Robertson in St. Helena, and Big Ranch in Oak Knoll. What’s also a plus, is that the wine was fermented in all stainless steel and not oak. There were nearly 12,000 cases produced.

Reviewed July 26, 2007 by Alan Goldfarb.