Above the Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Tasting notes & discussion 14

Typically $28/bottle from Above the Bay
Vintage 2024 from the North Coast
Available for AL; AZ; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Above the Bay: “Michael Farmer founded Above the Bay in 2022, marking a profound shift from his three decades in the banking industry to the pursuit of his passion for wine. After retiring early, Michael made the bold decision to return to school and dedicate himself to mastering the art and science of winemaking.”

Fourteen Mountains, Zero Personality

TASTING NOTES: “Crisp and clean, this wine delivers mouth watering flavors of white peach and green apple. Serve with your favorite cheeses and appetizers as well as spicy Asian fare or chicken chili.” (AbV 13%, pH 3.2)

VARIETALS: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

BARRELS: Aged 6 months in neutral French oak

PAIRS WITH: Serve with your favorite cheeses and appetizers as well as spicy Asian fare or chicken chili.

THAT REMINDS ME OF: Pine Mountain — the vineyard source for this wine, sitting at 2,300 feet above sea level in the Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak AVA.

There are at least fourteen Pine Mountains in the United States. Maybe more, depending on how generously you define “mountain.” There’s one in Georgia, one in Kentucky, one in Wisconsin. Colorado has a Pine Mountain. So does California, obviously, and Virginia, and Connecticut. At some point this stops being a place name and starts being a personality type — the guy at the party who, when asked where he’s from, says “oh, you know, just… around.” Pine. Mountain. Very evocative. Extremely specific. Thanks, early American settlers.

The naming of American geographical features is a genuinely chaotic enterprise. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names — yes, that’s a real federal agency, established in 1890 — exists specifically because the country had gotten into such a spectacular mess of duplicate and contradictory place names that the government had to step in. At one point, the Postal Service and the War Department couldn’t agree on how to spell “Gettysburg.” The Board has since standardized hundreds of thousands of names and officially banned apostrophes from nearly all U.S. geographic features in 1890, which is why it’s Pikes Peak and not Pike’s Peak and why cartographers have been quietly furious for over a century.

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

The U.S. has 14+ Pine Mountains. How do you handle discovering something you thought was unique... isn't?

I embrace it — shared names mean shared character, and I like that

I embrace it — shared names mean shared character, and I like that
I dig deeper until I find what actually makes it distinct

I dig deeper until I find what actually makes it distinct
I lose interest a little, if I'm honest — uniqueness matters to me

I lose interest a little, if I'm honest — uniqueness matters to me
I find it fascinating rather than disappointing — context is everything

I find it fascinating rather than disappointing — context is everything
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