Sauvignon blanc

Sauvignon blanc is an aromatic white from the Loire and Bordeaux, and one of the two parents of cabernet sauvignon. Its name comes from sauvage, wild, which suits both the flavour and the vine's vigorous growth. It is defined chemically more clearly than most grapes: methoxypyrazines give it green pepper, grass and blackcurrant leaf, and volatile thiols give it passionfruit, grapefruit and, at high concentration, a note commonly described as cat urine.

How much of each you get depends almost entirely on ripeness and site. Cool, and picked early, it is grassy, nettly and sharp. Warmer, and riper, the pyrazines fade and the thiols take over, which is the tropical Marlborough style. Very warm, and it loses both and turns flabby, which is why sauvignon blanc from hot regions is usually dull.

The two classic homes are Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in the upper Loire, where it grows on limestone and flint and is taut and smoky, and Bordeaux, where it is blended with sémillon and sometimes aged in oak. Marlborough is the third, and its style is now the world's most recognisable white wine. It is a grape best drunk young; it very rarely rewards keeping.