2018 Stolpman Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Ballard Canyon

Serious Competition for the Loire Valley

Our friends outside of the wine business don’t quite understand when we say this, but after a long day of tasting, we’re exhausted. Earlier this year, during the final day of our swing through California’s Central Coast we had, from breakfast until dinner, tasted some of the best Pinot Noirs and Syrahs we’d had in a long time: Expressive, exciting wines from producers that you’ll certainly be seeing right here in the coming months.

But during the drive back to Los Angeles, the Santa Lucia Highlands silhouetted against the sinking sun, we all agreed that what we really wanted was something to wake up our weary palates. The idea of a beer was floated. Someone suggested cocktails. But as soon as we settled into our table at the L.A. NoMad later that evening, and saw the 2018 Stolpman Sauvignon Blanc on the wine list, we knew that we’d found the answer.

It was exactly what we needed. This, after all, is a wine that strikes that incredibly rare balance between generous fruit and bracing acidity, between mouthwatering energy and the sort of concentration that only the best Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire Valley typically have. Available today at a price that makes French wine producers squirm—just $20 for the best domestic Sauvignon Blanc we’ve tasted all year.

We shouldn’t have been surprised. Stolpman, after all, is a longtime Wine Access customer favorite, and a producer whose reputation seems to grow by an order of magnitude with each passing year. This year,Wine & Spirits ranked Stolpman in the Top 100 producers in the world for by-the-glass placements at the country’s best restaurants. (It’s a good thing we’ve been working with them for so long… otherwise we’d never be able to get this generous an allocation to offer here, and at these prices!)

The sommelier came over, presented the bottle, and expertly divided it up among our team. “So, you guys must be in the business, right?”

“How do you know?” Vanessa asked, swirling the shimmering liquid in her glass.

“Because all of you have red teeth, so I’m guessing you were tasting all day, and I overheard you talking about how excited you were to find this bottle on the list. It’s usually the wine pros who know what a gem this wine is.”

Vanessa raised her hands in mock surrender. “You got us,” she said. “Guilty as charged.”

The somm smiled and walked away. We all took a professionally acceptable taste of the wine…followed by proper drinks of it: Just like in previous vintages, the 2018 showed all the structure and exuberance we had come to expect.

It was almost exactly a year earlier that we found ourselves at the rooftop bar of the NoMad with Pete Stolpman and his wife Jessica, and Pete explained to us what made the wine so special.

“What they have in the greatest vineyards of the Loire Valley—Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé—is chalky white rock that imparts all that fantastic minerality to the wine,” Stolpman explained. “A little over 10 years ago, we figured we’d see how Sauvignon Blanc fared on our land and planted two experimental acres. The vineyard sits on a limestone outcropping that’s 40 million years old—it’s incredibly rare, there’s nothing else like it in the county. We all agreed that, thanks to the young active soils and the maritime influence, we had the opportunity to make something truly unique.”

So he and his team dry-farm the land, forcing the roots of the stressed vines to go as deep as they can, and coaxing out as much texture and character from the juice as they can. The result is a wine that year after year ranks among the best whites in the entire state. In 2018, Mother Nature smiled on Stolpman’s Ballard Canyon home, leading to a harvest without any heat spikes, which give this wine incredible freshness and purity of fruit.

As we sat there at our table, the waves of autumn fruit giving way to more tropical notes as the chill came off each sip, the structure practically electric and the acidity as mouthwatering as anything coming out of Sancerre, we all knew we’d made the right decision ordering this Sauvignon Blanc. We fell into conversation about how rare it is that a producer maintains such consistency, vintage after vintage, and continues offering stellar wines at prices that could easily justify being doubled.

A few minutes later, the somm returned with a second bottle and another ice bucket. “Just in case,” he said with a sly smile. “Just in case. Because I know this wine. And there’s no way you’ll be able to drink just one.”

He was right. A wine this great, and at this fair a price? Yeah, we’ll take two. And maybe a third after that.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Sweetness
• Acidity

• ABV 13.00%
• Enjoy right away
• Drink Up
• % Sauvignon Blanc
• Serving temperature – 48°
• Cork