Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesAnother stellar wine from this quality-driven producer and an excellent vintage, the bang-for-buck factor delivers extra strong here. Think Pouilly Fumé-meets-Marlborough. Notes of soft gunflint and seashell tuck beneath bright citrus and stone fruit, grass and dried green herbs. The palate strikes a lovely balance between texture and zingy acidity. Flinty, mineral nuances run beside juicy citrus right to the long finish. This may be less ageworthy than Henri’s upper tier Sauvignon, but it’s utterly delicious drinking right now.
This has a very fresh lime and herb nose with gooseberry and minerally notes, too. The palate has a very rich, fleshy and piercingly acidic fruit core with a taut, herbal edge. Drink now.
The 2019 Petit Clos Sauvignon Blanc combines tropical notes of passion fruit with crisp grapefruit flavors and hints of ripe nectarine, then underscores all that fruit with a sense of stony austerity and a mouthwatering finish. It's medium-bodied and silky in feel—a strong effort for a property's second wine and a welcome change from the last couple of vintages I reviewed.
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.
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.