RKS Wine: “Sunday Sail”: A Winner at the Regatta or a Loser Hitting the Rocks?

There will be a new Sauvignon Blanc sailing into Ontario at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario on April 2, 2022. It is called “Sunday Sail”. I like good Sauvignon Blanc but simply saying it is from New Zealand, as “Sunday Sail” won’t convince us. Right? I know a huge seller Zealie Sauvignon Blanc here in Ontario that politely said is good for swabbing the decks with.

The marketing material mentions “Sunday Sail” has a “fresh and contemporary style”. EEKS! What does this snappy phrase mean! Is this the wine that all those happy and smiling models in LCBO Vintages catalogues drink? You know that young and very rich lady (model) sitting in Air Canada business class with the latest 13 iPhone and sipping white wine from a glass while this impoverished wine writer sits in steerage or God forbid the humiliating Rouge drinking 4^th rate wine from plastic bottles in plastic wine glasses.

I suppose what counts is what’s in the bottle. So lets get to work.

As for aromatics this light gold wine has piercing beams of Florida white grapefruit one happily devours in April. Nice lurking on the edge’s passion fruit and guava. There are lesser notes of tangerine and honey. Ahoy matey no choppy waters here.

Now to the palate. You can have a great wind behind you but can you capture it and take advantage of it? By this I mean there may be a great aroma to the wine but managing the palate and propelling to the finish line are intertwined. The gale force aromatics are fine tined and harmonized by the wine’s palate which tones the aromatics down and gives us a serious Sauvignon Blanc. Sleek notes of exactly what you get for aromatics. Thank goodness none of this “crisp acidity” you see used in describing white wines.

The finish is short.

I will say I have had some awesome Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand but I have had some atrocious ones. This Sauvignon Blanc will not win the regatta but it sure will not embarrass itself by crashing into the reef. It can hoist its sails and cross the finish line with the better sloops in the Ontario marketplace.

I would match this with a tofu in peanut sauce over organic Japanese buckwheat noodles. I can’t see it improving in the bottle so best to consume this year. By the way do not serve this cold but rather chilled as too cold robs it of aromatics and taste. It just keeps on improving as it transcends cold to chilled!

(Sunday Sail 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, (Produced and Bottled For The Barrel Hunter Corporation, Vaughan, Ontario), $19.95, LCBO # 22850, 750 mL, 13%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 90/100).