Great Value Wines: 8 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc for Under $30

When the subject of Napa Valley wines comes up, cabernet sauvignon comes in first place on the chatter meter followed by more cabernet sauvignon before the talk turns to white varietals – usually chardonnay. But there’s an undervalued player on the white-varietal front in Napa totally deserving of your attention: sauvignon blanc.

It’s a wine that sometimes get a bad rap, with thoughts of tinned tropical fruit and wilting flowers coming to mind. However, a well-executed sauv blanc is a wonderful thing – aromatic, fresh and vibrant. Basically, a summer drinking companion destined to please any and all. James and I were recently in Napa Valley and found ourselves drinking sauvignon blanc almost every day and feeling like we should let everyone else in on the fun.

Sauvignon blanc has been planted in Napa for over a century now, with the first cutting supposedly coming straight from Chateau d’Yquem in Bordeaux in the 19^th century. However, it was Robert Mondavi’s bottlings of sauvignon blanc in the late 1960s and 1970s that first caught the attention of wine lovers, at a time when admirers of the variety were few and far between. His wines were modeled after those from Pouilly Fume from the Loire Valley, meaning drier and more complex, and he called them “fume blanc.”

Sauvignon blanc remained a relatively popular offering from Napa following Mondavi’s success with it before overexposure and staid winemaking took their toll and the grape was shunted to the side and cabernet sauvignon rose to be the king of Napa. But the sauvignon blancs of today taste very different. Focused, clear and bright would be more apt descriptors for many of the wines listed below.

Sadly, as a result of sauv blanc’s fall from grace over the past few decades, many vines were grafted over to cabernet sauvignon or other varietals, leaving just a few true sauvignon blanc vineyards in Napa. James feels this is a bit of a misstep because the sauvignon blancs we tried recently have all been truly charming, delicious and seem genuinely undervalued.

The list below is a great entry point to taste what we’re talking about. Every wine below is under $30, with the least expensive coming in at about $19. These wines are fragrant, balanced and dry. Chill them down and enjoy them on a hot summer day in the near future and we know you will not be disappointed.

– Nathan Slone, Associate Editor