Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc 2023

Our 2023 Sauvignon Blanc has great aromatic power, is lively and vibrant. Blackcurrant, passionfruit, dried herb and tropical notes all provide an enticing medley of flavours and memories. The palate shows a similar fruit profile along with a creamy, textural richness, great weight, drive and finishing with a salty, salivating freshness.

The majority of the Sauvignon Blanc is planted on the most northern part of the vineyard which is cooler and more suited to this variety. All our Sauvignon Blanc is hand-thinned where required, machine harvested and processed at the Mt Beautiful winery on site. The planted clones are a mix of University of Davis (UCD) 1, Mass Select (MS) on a mix of 101-14, 3309 and Schwarzmann rootstock along with Bordeaux clones 316 and 317 on Riparia Gloire rootstock. The MS clone is what much of the New Zealand industry is planted with providing a medley of fruit flavours with a lot of intensity, drive and acidity while the Bordeaux clones tend to be more tropical, softer in acidity providing a nice fullness and richness to the blends. To consider the merits of each clone at blending, where possible all Blocks and clones are fermented separately.

2023 was a long, extended vintage. A hot and dry early summer provided a good fruit set resulting in strong yields. Mid-summer, New Zealand experienced a run of cooler, cloudy days with some periods of rain in March that extended the ripening period and pushed out harvest by 2 weeks from normal. This enabled the fruit to ripen, acidity to drop and be picked with optimum flavour. The Sauvignon Blanc harvest started on the 17th April in F Block with Q Block being the last on 23 April. The spread of picking dates enabled a range of flavours within the Sauvignon Blanc from ripe tropical fruits to more herbaceous green herbs. The picking period was driven partially by yield and fruit condition but also because of the many different block locations and aspects on the vineyard which provide a nice array of variables and options at blending. The majority of the wine was fermented cool with a long slow fermentation to retain fruit aroma. The tank fermented wines were racked off gross lees approximately 10-20 days post fermentation while 5% of the wine was fermented in old barrels and left on lees for 2 months to provide texture. The Black Label was blended in June and bottled in early August.