I'll be honest, sauvignon blanc is not the wine I would choose in a "Stella Artois" advertising moment, if I had one sip to enjoy just before I die. Sacrilegious I know, especially since I am a HUGE fan of New Zealand wine. Maybe it's because the idea of "bungy-jumping naked through a gooseberry bush" has never held much appeal. However I will admit that its vibrancy, burst of flavour and sense of place, combined with its live fast and die young nature, does have a sexy appeal. It definitely makes it a wine that is easy to love at first bite. I mean it comes up and smacks you straight in the face, so it's not like it doesn't get noticed.

New Zealand sauvignon blanc, with its pungent aromatic nose, its ripe notes of passion fruit and gooseberry backed by a zingy citrus acidity have garnered a global fan base of that there is no doubt!. For me there is a time and place for everything, and that time and place for sauvignon blanc was last Friday, March 5th between the hours of 2-4p.m.(5-7pm Pacific Time) when St Supery Social Media Director Rick Bakas (@RickBakas) organised an online twitter tasting for the varietal that has earned New Zealand a star on the wine boulevard of fame.

To participate was simple. All you needed was a bottle of sauvignon blanc from anywhere in the world, a twitter account and a willingness to sample, sip and share. I was in. What I thought would be nicer would be to extend the online conversation offline and rather than sitting in my office tasting the wines alone, I called on some local NZ wine peeps and we gathered in the lovewine offices to share the wines and the experience.

Wine is a conversation and there is nothing better to facilitate great conversation than great company. I was spoilt on that front. I was joined by Sam Kim (@wineorbit), Giles Hine (@TizWine4U) and Rebecca Gibb (@rebeccagibb). Online we were joined by tweeters from California, East Coast USA, Europe and fellow New Zealand wineries Brown Family Vineyards @CapeCampbellNZ , Nautilus Estate @NautilusEstate, and Seresin Estate @SeresinEstate just to name a few.

I had prepared some nibbles for us to enjoy with the wines, home-made guacamole, garlic pepperoni and goats cheese. We were ready to open the screwcaps and enjoy.

I was really excited that we had chosen to taste a selection of New Zealand sauvignon blanc with a twist. We had sauvignon blanc from Hawke's Bay, Marlborough and Waipara but we were tasting 2009 and 2007 vintages to see if an older dog still had some tricks up its sleeve and one blended sauvignon blanc with semillon.

It was fantastic afternoon. What I loved most was that everyone had an opinion, but no one person was judging the other and there was no right or wrong. There was banter back and forth, both online and off. The wines that we thought would be stand out and probably were award winners were not necessarily the wines that we loved the most. New Zealand sauvignon blanc had so much to offer and I felt like a parent watching their child on stage as tweet after tweet came through sharing the love of this varietal from New Zealand. They were drinking our wine in California, NYC and as far away as Germany. Some of the comments coming through were: 

"@TomEddyWines: #nzwine was the hands down #sauvblanc fav among us techiechallenged/winey sorts here at Aka Bistro;ç "

@Travelpluswine agreed with @rebeccagibb "Hahaha... #nzwine & #SauvBlanc is synonymous. Like peas and carrots, as Forest Gump would say..."

@thewinegal "While I like the play of sweet & sour on the palate, I ♥ the long, creamy finish - beautiful. #nzwine #sauvblanc"

In total there were 3,429 tweets and 580 contributors sharing their love of sauvignon blanc from South Africa, California, France and of course New Zealand. It was a community of people just sharing the love. Rick Bakas summed it up perfectly when he tweeted " Wine isn't just about wine. Wine is about people-last night wine+social media brought people together in a positive way."  I'll raise a glass to that and to many many more.

Rick Bakas has arranged two future events that focus on #WineBlends (April 1) and #Chardonnay (May 6). 

Wines we tasted were.

Wine #1 Sea Level Marlborough Awatere #SauvBlanc 2009, winemaker Sam Smail
Wine #2 Catalina Sounds, Marlborough #SauvBlanc 2009, key sub regional blend, winemaker Nina Stocker.
Wine #3 Montana Reserve #SauvBlanc 2007, Marlborough
Wine #4 Easthope The Gatecrasher #SauvBlanc 2007 from Hawkes Bay, winemaker Rob Easthope
Wine #5 Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon 2007, Waipara

Below is summary of the lovewineNZ tweets from the #SauvBlanc tasting and our thoughts on the wines: