Line 39 Sauvignon Blanc

You can do a lot to grape vines with fertilizer, and once the wine is made there are lots of alterations that can be done with various ingredients, but there are a few things that are harder to fake. You can't really install a 100 million year old volcano under your soil, and you can't really change your latitude. Weather and periods of sun exposure are determined by precisely where you are between the equator and one of the poles, and how the Earth tilts as it revolves around the sun. If you go too far out of a certain latitude range it's very difficult to make good wine.

Cecchetti Wine Brands makes Line 39, a range of wines named after 39°N latitude, which runs right through Lake County, north of Sonoma and Napa. In Europe, that line runs through the middle of Portugal and Spain, hits southern Italy, and continues through Greece. (39°S runs through the north island vineyards of New Zealand, between Australia and Tasmania, and just south of the wine valleys of Chile.)

Line 39 Sauvignon Blanc
Lake County, California
$10, 13.6% abv.

This is a good bargain at $10. Although my personal preferences are going towards lighter white wines these days, this is a solid performer in the citrusy Sauvignon Blanc category. Grapefruit peel and lemon zest with big, tart citrus flavors. Crisp with a long finish. The wine is enclosed in a convenient screwcap, which would make this a good picnic wine. Give me some spinach, chicken salad on a croissant, and a cool glass of this and I'm happy to sit in the park listening to the symphony.

Note: This wine was received as a sample.