Winemaker Notes
Clos Henri Estate Sauvignon Blanc (formerly known as Petit Clos Sauvignon Blanc) offers notes of peach and nectarine are paired with elderflower and soft gunflint minerality. Textural, with zingy acidity and a flinty, mineral nuance this wine is both fresh and concentrated.
Enjoy on its own as an aperitif or with fresh shellfish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Sauvignon Blanc leads with an interesting, restrained nose of crushed rocks, shells, juniper, white oak, autumn leaves and green apple skins. In the mouth, the wine is very good. While powerful, it doesn’t descend to sweet or bulbous; this shows structural detail and fruit power in equal measure. Not your “usual” Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, but it honors the regional style in a fresh and almost geological way. Like it.
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Wine Enthusiast
A flinty, mineral character mingles with fleshy melon, lime leaf and dried wild herbs on this organic Sauvignon Blanc. There’s a lovely tangy freshness amid the chalky textural elements. While still quite young, this is, in general, a step up from your average Marlborough SB. It captures the world-famous style while adding an extra level of complexity and class. A flinty, mineral character mingles with fleshy melon, lime leaf and dried wild herbs on this organic Sauvignon Blanc. There’s a lovely tangy freshness amid the chalky textural elements. While still quite young, this is, in general, a step up from your average Marlborough SB. It captures the world-famous style while adding an extra level of complexity and class.
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
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.