The Setting Wines Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County 2021

This is one of the tippy-top best sauvignon blancs in California, made in the Bordelaise style and sure to rock the world of any white wine lover. 96 POINTS! Jesse Katz is the wizard behind the curtain here, and this is something you simply have to experience to believe!

The Setting is a relatively new project between three friends and is based in Sonoma County. One of those friends happens to be Jesse Katz – one of California’s (and beyond) truly up-and-coming winemakers. He’s built a global resume that would rival some of the best, with stints at Château Petrus, Château Haut Brion, Viña Cobos, Screaming Eagle, and more. He’s worked on two of the world’s most expensive sauvignon blancs – both at Haut Brion and Screaming Eagle – yet this effort at the helm may just be his most impressive yet!

Apart from his vast experience and the great fruit coming out of Dry Creek Valley, the secret to this wine’s incredible depth and flavor just might be the barrels. Just like he did at Haut Brion, this wine ages in 60-gallon barrels of Seguin-Moreau, but the staves are completely untoasted, and the heads of the barrels have been replaced with charred acacia wood. The effect is some sort of mystical alchemy, where the wine is pure, chiseled, and incredibly bright, yet with the faintest whispers of toasty acacia wood, more of a complement to the wine’s natural expression than a competitor.

The flavors are mineral and ripe, with peach and tangerine, lemongrass and tarragon, key lime, and lemon meringue – with each complementary flavor uplifted by a bright and flinty river rock character. The wine is round, yet linear, with both amplitude and intensity that carries into an impressively long finish. This should age as well as any California sauvignon blanc I have ever tasted – which is to say, a decade plus in good cellar conditions. But truly, this is giving, interesting, and just too cool for school in the here and now to wait on. So buy a case, and mix it up, with some for now and some for later...and I assure you, you will never, ever regret it!

PAIRING IDEAS: I went ahead and paired this with a Japanese twist on ceviche. I used small Japanese cucumbers, some red peppers, and daikon radish – all brunoised to a very fine dice – and mixed with wild Alaskan halibut, and a marinade of yuzu juice, with a dash each of soy, mirin, and seasoned rice vinegar. I finished with a chiffonade of shiso leaf, a small dab of koshu (Japanese chili paste), and a dash of toasted sesame oil, and wowee...it was soooo good with this!