Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2020

Imagine a summer fruit salad – ripe golden peaches, honeydew melon, nectarines and passionfruit, with a generous splash of cassis and a sprinkling of lime zest – this is a subtle, delicately aromatic, ripe interpretation of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. The palate is generous and textural, showing great concentration and finishing with a crisp, succulent finish.

Fruit was sourced from various prime vineyard sites in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys, the central Wairau Plains and a spectacular river terrace site in the upper Awatere Valley. Soil types vary from the young alluvial soils of Rapaura, Renwick and the upper Awatere, which contain high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. The majority of the vineyards were trained using the Scott Henry canopy management system, with the balance on a two- or three-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis.

The Sauvignon Blanc was harvested at night into half-ton bins. The grapes were lightly pressed and the resulting juice was cold-settled prior to fermentation in stainless steel, primarily using cultured yeast for cool, slow fermentation. A portion was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation. All individual lots were left on lees and kept separate until final blending.