If you love bright, crisp, clean white wines, you’ve landed on a great one! Today’s 2014 Hopkins River Ranch Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc is a brilliant springtime gem that our entire tasting panel went bonkers over. Because of our close relationship with the winery, we were able to secure you very special pricing. And, if you are a Wine Spies daily offers subscriber, the price is even better - thanks to the special, subscribers-only coupon that we emailed to you earlier, today.

The wine has a stunning clarity and with a pale chartreuse hue. It has a nice bright nose of apple, pear and lime citrus fruit. It also has mineral quality with a subtle melon characteristic. The palate is clean with more of the apple found on the nose than the citrus. Here too is quince, apricot and tart peach. The wine is very smooth, with a softer mouthfeel than most Sauvignon Blancs. It glides to a smooth finish with just the fresh apricot left on the palate. Because of its weight, this is a great one to pair with a main entree such as a salmon dinner.

Today’s wine was made by one of our favorite local winemakers, Randall Watkins. Randall grew up on his family vineyard, where he learned of wine at a very early age.

Randall went on to work for some of California’s best-known wineries, like Buena Vista Winery and Hartford Family Winery in Sonoma County, Carmen Vineyards in Chile, and as assistant winemaker at S. Anderson Vineyards in Napa and more recently at an Operative-favorite winery, Bugay Vineyards in Napa.