Andrew Blake — Marlborough, New Zealand
Tasting Notes
This wine offers the best of all aroma spectrums when it comes to Sauvignon Blanc. Aromas of sweet tropical fruit including guava, mango and passionfruit blend with exotic ginger and jasmine notes. Into that meld dried herbs such as oregano and sage combined with cut grass, snow peas and crushed nettles. A tight phenolic structure surrounds a luscious, succulent, zesty, gooseberry laced palate with a refined, enduring finish.
Winemaking Notes
This blend brings together components from 5 outstanding vineyard parcels. The majority was from two blocks in the Rapaura area and these were machine harvested and fermented in tank at relatively cool temperatures to preserve the punchy fruit intensity. While cruising the vineyards in the lead up to harvest we identified a few small special pockets of fruit in a couple of blocks. These were handpicked and whole bunch pressed to hold on to the purity of flavour and acidity the fruit offered. A small portion (approx 5%) was from a low yielding vineyard in Dillon’s Point. This was handpicked, whole bunch pressed and fermented using wild yeast in old French oak barrels. This component contributes an extra dimension to the texture of the wine as well as adding to the aroma and flavour profile. No fining was required before the wine was bottled in April 2011.
