When wine pros speak about a sense of place or terroir, they’re often referring to grapes like Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. But Sauvignon Blanc should be part of the conversation. Even though the wildly aromatic wines of New Zealand have come to define what many drinkers expect from the variety, Sauvignon Blanc has a lot of different expressions to offer depending on where it’s grown.
You can see this by tasting different Sauvignon Blancs from across the world. There are the crisp, mineral-driven wines from the Loire Valley, rich and ripe bottlings from California, high-altitude bottlings from northern Italy, and even a new set of compelling examples from Virginia.
We sampled a wide range of wines from the beloved, fruit-forward New Zealand expressions to interesting bottles from Austria and Long Island to compile a list that showcases the best of the best. Here are 30 Sauvignon Blancs to try in 2025.
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Why You Should Trust VinePair
Every year, VinePair conducts dozens of tastings for our “Buy This Booze” product roundups, highlighting the best bottles across the world’s most popular wine and spirits categories.
Within this scope, VinePair’s tasting and editorial staff samples thousands of bottles every year. This ensures we have a close eye on what’s new and exciting. Crucially, it also provides us with the context needed to distinguish the simply good from the truly great, whether from a quality or value-for-money perspective — or both.
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How We Taste
We believe in tasting all products as our readers typically would: with full knowledge of the producer and — importantly — price. Our tastings are therefore not conducted blind.
VinePair’s tasting panel evaluates every wine on its aromas, flavors, structure, balance, and quality. We also consider whether or not the wine showed typicity for its specific grape or region.
How We Compiled This List
In order to provide our readers with the most comprehensive and thoroughly tested list of the best Sauvignon Blancs to buy, VinePair invited producers, distributors, and PR firms working on their behalf to send samples for consideration. These bottles were submitted free of charge — producers didn’t pay to submit nor did VinePair pay for the products. All were requested with the clear understanding that submission does not guarantee inclusion in the final list.
For the Sauvignon Blanc roundup, we assigned a score to each product on a 100-point scale based upon the quality and intensity of its aromas, flavors, texture, and finish. Then we reviewed all scores and compiled an editorially driven list that meets our criteria of best Sauvignon Blanc to buy right now. Each wine was assessed on quality, price, and availability to compile the final list.
The Best Value Sauvignon Blanc
Marietta Cellars Old Vine Ranch ‘OVR’ Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Scot Bilbro is the second-generation owner and winemaker of California’s Marietta Cellars, carrying on the family legacy. He began the OVR (Old Vine Ranch) project to dial in the sense of place that only old vines can translate. And it comes across in this Sauvignon Blanc made with hand-harvested fruit from old vines.
The nose is a bit savory with ginger and sliced pear aromas. The palate is calm with well-integrated fruit and acidity. The wine is aged in neutral oak, adding a nice texture to the palate, which later finishes on a salty, mineral note. An incredible wine for the price.
Average Price: $20
Rating: 91
The Best Splurge Sauvignon Blanc
Passerelles Touraine Oisly 2023
Jackson Family Wines — the company behind the well-known Kendall-Jackson label — has branched out. Out of the U.S. that is. The company has always admired the wines of the Loire Valley, and Passerelles is its love letter to the Sauvignon Blanc grape. The beauty of this wine is that, for the most part, the Loire Valley’s Touraine region (just west of Sancerre) isn’t known for producing higher-end wines, at least on the American market.
Here, this bottling from Oisly (the commune where the grapes come from) shows that wines from the large winemaking zone can still exhibit finesse and focus. Compared to the more expensive wines of nearby Sancerre, this wine punches far above its weight and shows just that. The nose brings subtle notes of pepper, citrus, orchard fruit, and river rock minerality. The mouthfeel is precise, but still showcases all the best elements of this complex variety. The finish is elegant and lengthy. While this isn’t the most expensive bottle on the list, we felt the need to call it out as a splurge-worthy wine from the Loire Valley’s unassuming Touraine.
Average Price: $30
Rating: 95
The Best of the Rest:
Best Sauvignon Blancs Under $30
Decibel Sauvignon Blanc 2023
We all know the Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand’s premier wine region, Marlborough, for its intense, distinct flavor profile. But have you tried Savvy B from the northern island’s Hawkes Bay region? The wine is calmer and more mineral-driven than its southern counterpart while not skimping on personality. This example from Decibel has a waxy nose with quiet spikes of green and white pepper and fresh apple aromas. The palate is bright and refreshing with some added grapefruit notes and a nice balance between fruit and acidity.
Average Price: $20
Rating: 92
Coralie et Damien Delecheneau La Grange Tiphaine Trinqu’âmes 2023
This is not your typical Sauvignon Blanc. It comes from the Loire Valley, but doesn’t show the bracing, mineral side of Sauvignon Blanc that’s typically seen here. No, this wine from Touraine is round and complex. It’s fermented in concrete and fiberglass tanks and aged on its lees for five months. The result is a delicious, deep, honeyed nose with river rock minerality, and notes of ginger and white pepper. The mouthfeel is rich and grippy. Trinqu’âmes means “Let’s toast to our souls.” This wine definitely has soul.
Average Price: $21
Rating: 93
Bodega Garzón Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2022
Located between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is quickly gaining recognition as a wine- producing country in the U.S. market. The nation grows less than a dozen international varieties, with Tannat being the main focus for red. And, considering how good this Sauvignon Blanc is, maybe it should be the focus for white grapes. The nose on this single-vineyard bottling offers aromas of lemongrass, white pepper, and orchard fruit. The palate is even and balanced with a nice depth of fruit kept refreshing by active acidity.
Average Price: $22
Rating: 93
Tua Tua Sauvignon Blanc 2023
A lot of the Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough has a specific aroma profile. And although these wines are casual and laid back, they can also be a bit aggressive. This bottle is not that. It shows some of the best qualities of this style without overwhelming the senses. And this might be one of the best on the market for the price. It shows the variety’s signature pepperiness, but the savory notes are very well integrated into the wine. The nose is salty and mineral-driven, and the palate is juicy, refreshing, and down right enjoyable.
Average Price: $22
Rating: 92
Blenheim Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2023
Blenheim Vineyards is located outside of Charlottesville, Va., and has an amazing lineup of wines. Here, winemaker Kirsty Harmon shows us Sauvignon with a sense of place. This expression offers aromas of river rocks, white pepper, ginger, and fresh citrus. The palate is salty and quenching with a slightly grippy edge and active acidity. The finish is lengthy and delicious.
Average Price: $23
Rating: 93
Valravn Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Valravn is Banshee Wines founder Baron Ziegler’s Sonoma project. It began with a Zinfandel in 2014 and has since expanded to a full lineup. This Somoma Sauvignon Blanc is wonderful with notes of aloe, citrus, and green pepper on the nose with a dash of honey. The palate is full and round with a nice grip. The ABV is slightly elevated at 14 percent, but it’s well integrated, making for a delicious, fuller-bodied Savvy B.
Average Price: $23
Rating: 92
Paritua ‘Stone Paddock’ Sauvignon Blanc 2023
This is one of the best Savvy Bs to come out of New Zealand — and it’s not from Marlborough. Rather, it’s from the eastern coast of the North Island in a warm, dry region called Hawkes Bay. This wine has a mineral nose with prominent but well-integrated green bell pepper notes. The palate has good grip with flavors of grapefruit, peaches, and a hint of toasted oak.
Average Price: $25
Rating: 94
Tenuta San Leonardo ‘Vette di San Leonardo’ Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Northern Italy’s Alto Adige region is known for its crisp, vibrant white wines grown in the high elevations of the Dolomites. This Sauvignon Blanc from San Leonardo is definitive of that style. It’s even named “Vette” for the peaks that tower over the vineyards in the background. It’s playful, aromatic, and focused with prominent aromas of gooseberries on the nose along with some beeswax and aloe. The palate is dry and lean with excellent fruit that adds depth to the wine’s more angular structure.
Average Price: $27
Rating: 93
Domaine Bersan Saint Bris 2023
Though the vineyards of northern Burgundy are typically planted to a sea of Chardonnay, there’s one anomaly in the region: Saint Bris. This unique Burgundy appellation is exclusively planted to Sauvignon Blanc. And these wines have all the verve of the steely Chardonnays from up north but with their own Sauvignon Blanc spin. This example has a mineral-driven nose with subtle citrus aromas. The palate has a slight savory note mingling with soft hints of salty butter and green apples.
Average Price: $27
Rating: 93
CrossKeys Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2024
As more Sauvignon Blanc is produced across the Commonwealth state, its sense of place is starting to shine through. This calm, deep, and refreshing example comes from the Shenandoah Mountains. It has a nose of fresh grass, herbs, crisp apples, and ginger. The palate offers juicy citrus notes and quenching acidity.
Average Price: $28
Rating: 93
Elena Walch Sauvignon Alto Adige 2024
High up in the hills of Alto Adige, the Sauvignon grape thrives. This region gets a lot of sunshine, bringing ripe, concentrated flavors to the wine. And the cool, high-altitude air helps retain the wine’s acidity and subtlety. This bottle from Elena Walch is a great example of this balance. It has waxy orchard fruit and white pepper on the nose. The palate has a slightly rounded, weighty texture but with bright acidity, giving it a seamless mouthfeel.
Average Price: $28
Rating: 93
Pollak Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2022
More proof that this variety is doing great things in Virginia. This bottle comes from Pollak Vineyards just outside Charlottesville. Upon pressing the grapes they separate the lighter juice from the darker juice and ferment them individually, eventually blending them back together. This comes through in the wine’s balance between bright acidity and rich fruit. It has a nose of roasted green bell peppers and sweet citrus with a slight honeyed note. The palate is soft and racy with good fruit depth and active, balancing acidity.
Average Price: $28
Rating: 92
Pine Ridge Vineyards North Coast Sauvignon Blanc 2024
This wine is all about balance. Though it comes in a 14.5 percent ABV — which is slightly higher than most examples of Sauvignon Blanc — the acidity breaks through and holds the wine in place. The result is a refreshing, medium-bodied wine with lively notes of lemon zest, ginger, apples, and freshly cut grass.
Average Price: $28
Rating: 92
Best Sauvignon Blancs Under $50
Massican Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Massican is winemaker Dan Petroski’s way of saying refreshing, high-acid white wine can be made in a place like Napa Valley. The nose is waxy with aromas of fresh citrus, lemongrass, and sea spray. The palate is rich, leaning more into a tropical fruit profile with bright acidity. A beautiful wine.
Average Price: $32
Rating: 95
Wölffer Estate Vineyard Antonov Sauvignon Blanc 2022
The White Horse series is Wölffer Estate’s way of honoring the heritage and legacy of the land it stewards. These Sauvignon grapes enjoy plenty of sunshine while the Atlantic influence comes through with a maritime breeze to keep the grapes cool and retain acidity. All of this is captured in the bottle. The nose wafts with green apples, fresh herbs, and minerals. The palate has a nice edgy grip and a juicy fruit core, maintaining a nice depth and balance.
Average Price: $32
Rating: 94
Duckhorn Vineyards North Coast Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Duckhorn has been in the game for a long time and was one of the pioneering wineries of Napa Valley. They have since branched out as far as Washington State and explored a lot of their surrounding wine areas. This Sauvignon Blanc comes from the North Coast where a cool maritime-influenced climate allows Sauvignon Blanc to retain its verve. An ABV of 14.1 percent really adds to the depth of the wine, but it maintains balance. It has a rounded palate with notes of peaches, citrus, and minerals.
Average Price: $32
Rating: 92
Meadowlark North Fork by Macari Vineyards ‘Wild Ferment’ Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Meadowlark North Fork is a new project from Macari Vineyards that includes a wine bar, an event space, and a series of unique, small-batch wines that focus on innovative techniques. This wine is made with spontaneous fermentation and is aged in stainless-steel tanks for seven months. The result is a vibrant expression of Sauvignon Blanc with juicy pink grapefruit and an oyster shell minerality. Dinner on the bay in the summer with this wine? Fuggetaboutit.
Average Price: $34
Rating: 93
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars ‘Aveta’ Sauvignon Blanc 2023
Aveta is the name of the Roman water goddess Dea Aveta, often depicted carrying fruit. Grapes were carried from four vineyards to make this wine. See what I did there? This wine was fermented in a mix of stainless-steel tanks and older French oak barrels, creating a great balance between crisp, zippy acidity and a rounded, complex mouthfeel. It delivers juicy, concentrated flavors of tropical fruits like mango and pineapple, contrasted by fresh and tangy citrus.
Average Price: $35
Rating: 93
Girlan Indra Sauvignon 2024
This wine comes from vineyards situated in the high elevations of Italy’s Alto Adige region. Wines from there have wonderful acidity and are extremely refreshing. This Sauvignon is mineral-driven on the nose with subtle aromas of pear and white pepper. The mouthfeel is bright and waxy with a good depth of fruit to match the high-toned acidity.
Average Price: $35
Rating: 92
Linden Vineyards Avenius Sauvignon Blanc 2023
About a half a mile north of the Linden Winery in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is the Avenius vineyard run by Shari Avenius. It was planted in 1996 and sits at 1,300 feet above sea level with well-draining soils. That elevation and soil type force the vines to struggle for nutrients and, with a skilled human hand, can produce stunning wines. And that is exactly what Liden Vineyards did with their Avenius Sauvignon Blanc. The nose has prominent white pepper notes over slight hints of beeswax and flowers. The palate is rich and grippy with amazing fruit quality and depth and a savory note toward the end with a lingering finish. This wine is incredible.
Average Price: $38
Rating: 95
Glen Manor Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2023
Virginia is a great place for Sauvignon Blanc. We are seeing more and more new and exciting examples from the Commonwealth, but Glen Manor has been working with this variety since the team first planted Sauvignon Blanc vines in 1995. (It was actually the first grape variety it planted.) These wines are stunning and such a pure expression of Sauvignon Blanc. The nose offers the variety’s signature aromas of green bell peppers and gooseberries. The palate is comforting with a creamy mouthfeel, rich fruit notes, and a lingering finish.
Average Price: $39
Rating: 96
Maria & Sepp Muster Sauvignon vom Opok 2022
Coming from Styria — a small wine zone on the southern border of Austria that produces wildly expressive white wines — this is not the Sauvignon Blanc that you’re used to. And it’s delicious. The wine is fermented and aged for about 20 months in large wooden casks, which gives it a softness around the edges. It opens with a slightly smoky, reductive note (in a good way) that gives way to notes of green apples and citrus. The mouthfeel is savory and mineral-driven, with wet stone notes coming from the region’s distinct Opok soils (limestone and clay silt). The reductive nature of the wine adds to its overall complexity.
Average Price: $40
Rating: 93
Smith Story Wine Cellars Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Husband-and-wife team Eric Story and Alison Smith-Story continue to impress with their expressive wines, all made with respect for the land. This Sauvignon Blanc has all of the things: peppery notes, crisp orchard fruit, and great acidity. This is all wrapped up in a round, blousy package of vibrant fruit and refreshment. These wines sell out quickly so jump!
Average Price: $40
Rating: 93
Clif Family Winery Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2024
At the southern end of Napa’s Oak Knoll district sits the Valle di Sotto Vineyard, the source of the Clif Family’s Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Though it’s located in a valley, this zone enjoys the cooling maritime influence of the San Pablo Bay. This comes through in the wine, which welcomes with a subtle, mineral-driven nose accented by hints of melon, grapefruit, and river rocks. The palate is dry with excellent fruit and acidity.
Average Price: $42
Rating: 93
Merryvale Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2024
This is a true Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. Sourced from across the region and matured in three types of vessels, it is literally an expression of winemaking in the AVA. The result is a beautiful, elegant wine. The nose is lightly scented with subtle aromas of lemon peel and minerals. The mouthfeel is focused, with a seamless balance between acidity and soft fruit.
Average Price: $43
Rating: 94
Best Sauvignon Blancs Over $50
Chateau Montelena Sauvignon Blanc 2023
This wine shines with elegance. From the nose to the palate it has a delicate nature while maintaining just the right amount of depth. The wine has aromas of lemongrass and oyster shells mingling with salty bistro butter and nori on the nose. The palate is exceptional, seamlessly weaving between acidity and fruit. The balance in this wine is impeccable.
Average Price: $50
Rating: 95
Merry Edwards Winery Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2023
The Russian River Valley bottling from Merry Edwards continues to be a stunning, standard-setting example of California Sauvignon Blanc. Barrel fermented in French oak, this wine is on the fuller side but is still zippy enough to keep it refreshing. The palate bursts with tropical fruit like pineapple and passion fruit with notes of lime zest and grapefruit that add freshness. The oak aging adds a layer of vanilla and a rounded mouthfeel.
Average Price: $50
Rating: 94
Crimson Lane Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Crimson Lane is yet another Virginia winery making Sauvignon Blanc with a sense of place. Aged in stainless-steel tanks, this wine gives a fresh expression of the grape with bright citrus notes and great acidity. There’s a calm weight on the palate interrupted by pops of fresh pears and green peppers.
Average Price: $54
Rating: 93
FAQs
Which country makes the best Sauvignon Blanc?
Originally from France, Sauvignon Blanc now grows all over the world. The most notable regions for Sauvignon Blanc are California, New Zealand, Chile, Italy, Bordeaux, the Loire Valley, and South Africa.
Why is New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc so popular?
New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has notes of tropical fruit, grapefruit, grass, and lime that make the wine easy to sip and appealing to a wide range of tastes. It also pairs well with popular dishes such as seafood and fresh vegetables.
Is Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc?
Sancerre is a region of France that showcases a crisp expression of Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Sauvignon Blanc wines from this region have notes of tart lemon, wet stone, and green apple and are known for their light flavor profile and minerality.
What’s the correct serving temperature for Sauvignon Blanc?
The best serving temperature for Sauvignon Blanc is between 45 and 49 degrees Fahrenheit. A general rule of thumb is that the lighter a wine is in color and flavor, the colder it should be served. We recommend chilling Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge for roughly an hour and a half and letting it come up to temp on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes before serving.
