The Wine to Enjoy on This Deck: Chilean Sauvignon Blanc

I was invited by Wines of Chile to take part in a blogger Sauvignon Blanc tasting. The hardest part was sitting on the bottles they sent me via FedEx for a couple weeks. They were very tempting. My patience and perseverance were rewarded when, shockingly, Seattle handed me a sunny day and access to a lovely outdoor setting. After plowing through (a judicious sampling of) 8 bottles, what did I learn?

• Although there were a wide variety of styles and regions, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc proved to be dry, refreshing, and delicious.
• I did not detect any of the strong green bean (think high school cafeteria) odor that I find so off-putting in many New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
• 7 out of the 8 were good to very good, and most were in the $10-20 dollar range.  If anyone who knows me as a  buyer ("The Hater") read that I enjoyed 87.5% of the wines presented to me, they would fall out of their chair.
• These wines were lovely with seafood.  I made a halibut ceviche with onion, red and yellow bell pepper, cilantro, and lemon juice.  We also had a black cod marinated in grated ginger and lemon zest; it got poached in, naturally, Sauvignon Blanc.
• The wines were also lovely on a rooftop deck on a warm (for Seattle) day with great friends.

My personal favorites were the Veramonte, the Cono Sur Organic, and the Ventisquero.  I liked the zippiness of the Veramonte, the balance and sheer deliciousness of the Cono Sur, and the richer profile of the Ventisquero.  And, taking part in this event with bloggers from all over the country, my favorite descriptive phrase for one of the Sauvignon Blancs was "grassy creamsicle."

Jameson Fink is a wine buyer at a bustling grocery store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. He moved to Seattle from Chicago (where he dabbled in the restaurant and wine industries) five years ago to pursue a full-time career in wine. He’d rather be drinking Champagne and eating popcorn right now.