Bogle California Sauvignon Blanc, 2004 vintage
Price: $10-12.00
Suggested food pairings: shellfish, marinated poultry, acidic cheeses like feta or goat cheese, savory pasta, seafood, and vegetable salads

I was fortunate enough to spend a day this week with the winery representative from Bogle. We visited in the course of the work day and talked about his wines, other wines, the wine world in general, quality vs. price, and Bogle’s future—a future that includes an expansion of their line (watch for the 2004 Pinot Noir being released this Spring). If the future is as good as the past has been, we will all be drinking a lot more Bogle.

Today’s estate consists of 1,200 acres planted to grapes in the Sacramento River Delta. The sixth generation of the Bogle family is farming the land, with only the last 38 years spent cultivating the current crop. Ten years after planting to grapes, a winery was built in 1978, and the rest of the story features quality wines at value prices as the stars of the show.  The Bogle family forms the supporting cast, involved in all phases, from tilling the soil to pouring samples in the tasting room to selling and marketing cases of wine. I have been drinking and selling Bogle for years; as a line, it’s never gone backwards in quality, and each year the price stays low.

The color of this Sauvignon Blanc is very pale with green edges, while the nose is as wild as a Sauvie from New Zealand. Aromatic lime zest, fresh grass clippings and grapefruit flesh all kick the olfactory nerve into gear. No dainty white wine expected here. One hundred percent stainless steel treatment of the wine, or should I say a complete absence of oak barreling, lets the natural acid so prevalent in this grape run the show. The result is a sun-drenched mouth full of lemon, lime, grapefruit and sweet grass, with a shot of syrupy pineapple in the mix to balance it all out. The finish continues as if it were a red wine, and is pleasing throughout. As is always the case with gems like this, it’s great to find so much complexity in a bottle for 10 smackers.

Craig Pierce can be reached at craig_l_pierce @hotmail.com.