Winey Tasting Notes: Brancott Estate’s Flight Song and The Winey Daughter Down Under

I am continuing to live for text messages and Facebook posts as The Winey Daughter studies film in Australia and New Zealand for the month. (Winey Tasting Notes: The Winey Daughter Down Under and Layer Cake Shiraz, Winey Tasting Notes: Down Under with Lobster Reef Sauvignon Blanc)

At least, she says she’s studying film. As far as I can tell three weeks into the trip, she is scuba diving, shopping and sky diving. Because of course, that’s what you do when you take a film class abroad.

Making friends on the Great Barrier Reef

Actually, it is. Because if you’re going to go halfway around the world, you should absolutely take advantage of the fact that it’s summer in Australia. And that the Great Barrier Reef lies off the northeastern coast of that country. Hence the scuba diving and sky diving. The shopping is a given and to be honest, it only came up when she announced that she and her classmates ran into and talked with a very famous, very cool American actor while they were shopping in Sydney. (Not sure I am allowed to say who, but his initials are Samuel L. Jackson.)

In an attempt to live vicariously through her adventures down under, and due to the lack of barrier reefs and sky diving planes here in Ohio, I have taken to sipping some Aussie wines. Actually, today’s wine is from New Zealand, but since she spent the first part of her trip there, it totally counts.

And besides, I was intrigued when I saw the label on the bottle. Brancott Estate’s Flight Song Sauvignon Blanc (2014, 9%, Marlborough, NZ) promises that it is 20% lighter in calories than their normal Sauvignon Blanc. They harvest the grapes earlier in the season, when the sugar levels in the fruit are lower.

Really? I have had some “reduced-calorie” or “light” wines…to mixed reviews at best. (Winey Tasting Notes: Just In Time For Bathing Suit Weather: The Light Grape Collection, Winey Tasting Notes: Skinny Girl California Red (or: I’ll Take The Extra Calories, Please) So I did ponder this one for a few moments. And then I figured I’d try it. In my experience, “light” whites do so much better than reds and this was from the holy ground of Sauvignon Blancs: Marlborough.

The first aroma I got when I opened the bottle was lime – lots and lots of it. And that was followed by green pepper. Very promising for a Sauvignon Blanc. The flavors didn’t disappoint: green pepper and green grass mixed in with lime and lemongrass. Juicy and crisp with lots of clean acidity. This wine is dry and light.

I didn’t expect that tart crispness. When I see a wine has a 9% ABV, I think sweet. Or watery. This was absolutely neither. It was full of flavor and zest. I’d buy it again, lower calories or not.

If you like your wine tart and puckery and aromatic, this is the white for you. It runs in the $10 a bottle range and would be a great wine to stock up on for summer. Or to stock up on if you are wishing it was summer and you need to find your warm weather in a bottle. It works fine for that too. I know this firsthand.

Cheers!

For the record: 88 calories a glass.