Catalina Sounds pays homage to the beauty of the Marlborough Sounds.
Once again Marlborough showed why it is so perfectly suited to growing Sauvignon Blanc, with a warm dry season punctuated by crisp cold nights. Flavours are intense yet well balanced, and as always the winery worked hard to coax out the interesting textural elements in the wine. This year they continued our use of larger format French oak barrels on a portion of the final blend, adding smoky, savoury, complexity to the final blend which makes this wine particularly suited to drinking with food.
Fruit was gently pressed, cold settled, then racked and inoculated. A variety of yeasts were used, some were selected to accentuate the aromatics of the fruit, while some add mouthfeel and texture to the final blend. Some tanks remained on yeast lees and stirred post-fermentation which adds a further textural element to the wine. Approximately 6% of the final blend was fermented in oak puncheons, and foudres, which brings a subtle undertone of savouriness and complexity.
This wine has a wonderful pale lemon colour. The bouquet is fresh pears, pink lady apples and wet stones which leads to the palate where you'll find it to be flinty and textured, interwoven with light tropical fruit and a lingering clean citrus finish.
Serve with fresh spring salad with shaved fennel, snow pea shoots and soft goats chevre.
Awards and Accolades
Huon Hooke: 95 (2013) Discreet but perfumed aroma, fresh and vital, with juicy peppermint overtones to the citrus, herbal and tropical fruit flavours. Very intense, clean, precise palate with focused flavour of great charm and pristine freshness. The finish lingers long. This is a very entertaining wine and will delight Marlborough savvy lovers. Very good intensity and palate length. A ripper.
Blue Gold Winner: Sydney International Wine Competition (2014) Judges' Comments:
Bryan Currie- Pale colour. Lifted tropical and citrus aromatics. Crisp and lean palate with added spice and drive from pepper seasoning and mushrooms.
Mark Robertson- The nose is mineral lifted mussel juice and grassy. Full of purity. The palate is beautifully light and lengthy. It’s a very good wine. With food it’s all about the concentration balance and length and the residual food flavour is matching the length of the wine contribution. This wine is a great success.
Cameron Douglas- Simple flavours. Simple complexity. A dry crisp finish with a little bit of apple. This wine also likes food and shows off the peach flavours and textures.
Neil Hadley- Clear fresh varietal notes of passionfruit and tropical salad. The palate presents as lithe crisp and youthful and finishing clean and juicy. It becomes just a little bitter when set against food.
Stuart Halliday- The palate seems a little flat. The nose is closed. No real power of the varietal notes coming through. The food wasn’t particularly complementary with this dish and it didn’t work very well at all.
Ken Dobler- A very pale straw colour. Lifted mineral aromas on the nose. A very fine austere palate with a nice acidic backbone. The lovely cleansing acid provided a nice foil for food.
GOLD & 91 Points - 2015 San Francisco Wine Competition GOLD - 2015 Selections Mondiales des Vin (Canada) SILVER - 2014 Air New Zealand Wine Awards BRONZE - 2014 International Wine & Spirit Competition (London) BRONZE - 2014 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine Show BRONZE - 2014 New Zealand International Wine Show
From the Winery
A naturally high cropping year necessitated plenty of work through the growing season to bring the vines back into balance and ensure fruit ripening in a timely fashion – for this we are greatly appreciative to the growers whose fruit contributed to this wine and to Fraser Brown, who manages our home ‘Sound of White’ vineyard, the major vineyard component of this wine. As always with Catalina Sounds, we have allowed the fruit to tell its story and added an extra layer of interest via a small amount of oak fermentation and aging on yeast lees, to coax out the interesting textural elements of the wine.
