This offers all you'd expect and more for a Wairau Valley Sauv Blanc! The nose has lots going on, a plethora of citrus fruit, grapefruit, apple and gooseberry sit with herbal notes of sage, oregano and a touch of ginger. Soft on the palate initially, the layers of fruit unfold to reveal more savoury notes, giving way to a zesty, dry finish.
Vintage to vintage this keeps improving, it's kind of wine that you will want to come back to again and again!
Awards and Accolades
Blue Gold - Sydney International Wine Competition 2016. Judged comments:
Sue Bastian A very intriguing and enticing nose with a lovely mix of tropical fruits overlying some fresh green top notes. These characters continue on the palate plus burst with a lovely fresh acid to balance and keep it refreshing. It requires a slightly more restrained dish again with regards to flavour.
Brent Marris A slightly toffee nose. Simple but fresh. Good acidity. Slight hards on the finish. A good combination as the wine softens out.
Jo Burzynska A lighter wine with acid to the fore. Very juicy citrus character with a light herbal note. The acid is still a touch tart even with the food. It might work better with certain styles of food.
Ken Dobler Bright green hues. Lifted tropical aromas on the nose. A powerful palate with tropical fruit complexed with some herbal nuances. The food accentuated the wine's attractive complexity.
Warren Gibson Slightly more coloured than others. Ripe fruit on the nose. Clean and pure. A complex wine. Delicious purity of flavours on the palate. The asparagus and mushroom dish is a lovely synergy. Excellent length.
Wilfred Wong I don’t like this wine very much actually. The aroma is good. Citrus is fine. Fresh. Very soft on the palate with pretty low acid and a very short finish. It improved a little bit with the dish.
2014 Vintage:
Blue Gold - Sydney Top 100. Gold - San Francisco International Wine Competition 2015
91 Points - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front: "Lots of fruitiness in the perfume; citrus fruitiness, apple fruitiness, passionfruitiness. Also, some stony, wet pebble mineral notes chiming in. Like this entrée to a main course. Fleshy-textured but very long and tight through the finish. Tastes like good fruit, with a squeeze of citrus over it. Lots of personality, really delicious, finesse in the mix too. Kudos."
4 stars - Raymond Chan, January 2015
From the Winery:
After picking and gently pressing, each vineyard block was separately fermented, with a portion occurring naturally in barrels before blending and bottling.
Sauvignon Blanc is grown in our Marlborough vineyard on stony riverbed terraces, gently pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks to give intense passionfruit and gooseberry fruit characters. The wine is fruit-driven in style, with complexity from lees ageing for several months in stainless steel tanks before bottling. This wine is a classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with intense flavours and crisp acid in a dry style.
