Happy International Sauvignon Blanc Day. We here are celebrating on the terrace overlooking the Pyrenees with a ‘people’s Savvy’. On a lark, I picked up Les Ormes de Cambras Sauvignon Cuvee Reservee 2020 on sale at my local supermarket for 1.75eu, down from 2.50! Not expecting much, I was gobsmacked at how good it was.

OK, no one expects Ferrari style at Hyundai prices, nevertheless this will get you enough typically grassy, gooseberryish, citrus characters to know its definitely Sauvignon. Where it delivers in spades is through tart, razor sharp, acidity and extraordinary persistence. I couldn’t get over how long flavors kept hanging on my tongue after every swallow.

How can anyone make something this good for this price? Firstly, LOdC make a lot of it in Southern France where grapes are cheap, so the same wine sells for 4-8 dollars/pounds/bingbongs... or less, most everywhere in the world. Secondly, I’m guessing grapes are sourced from cooler parts of Languedoc-Roussillon that are blended with under ripe grapes from warmer parts, capturing herbal notes and higher acidity and some mixed complexity.

Normally I have a hard time finding inexpensive wines I can stomach drinking, because so many are ‘sugared up’ to cover up poor quality grapes. This doesn’t play the sugar trick. It honestly is what it is. Chill it down and serve it up before the end of summer.