Winemaker Notes
Allan Scott is synonymous with wine in Marlborough: he has worked every harvest since 1973 and is credited with planting some of the region’s most famous vineyards, including the very first.
In 1990, Allan and his wife Catherine established Allan Scott Wines as one of the first independent wineries of Marlborough. Since its inception, the winery has produced wines consistent in flavor and quality year after year while continually evolving to keep ahead of the changing demand of the market.
Perhaps the biggest change for the business has been its evolution into a true family business. Allan and Cathy’s two children have grown up to become valuable members of the business. Their son Josh and younger daughter Sara assumed control of the company and head up the production, management and development of the company with a highly skilled operational team.
The Scott family attributes its success to excellent vineyard sites, hard work, superb conditions and a desire to produce the world’s best wines. With its distinctive combination of cool nights, sunny days, and young soils, Marlborough is recognized as one of the world’s greatest wine regions.
An icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”