Winemaker Notes
From the historical Greywacke River Stone soil, their estate flagship wine, Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc, expresses a distinctive minerality (flintiness) and elegance underlined with excellent fruit purity. It is a wine of complexity and great aging potential which will gradually reveal with age the authenticity of its origins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Nicely defined, grassy lemon-pith aromas here with a gently flinty edge and dried mangoes. The palate has composed, long, fresh and focused fruit with elegance and concentration nicely pared together. Drink now. Screw cap.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: I first discovered the Clos Henri wines a few years ago, and I could taste their similarities to their counterparts in the Loire Valley. The 2017 Clos Henri is an excellent example of Sauvignon Blanc from the Wairau Valley in Marlborough. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits superb purity and freshness. Its aromas and flavors of dried herbs, dusty earth, and tangy citrus should pair it deliciously with lemon-accented seared scallops. (Tasted: May 3, 2019, Treasure Island, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
In line with this biodynamic winery’s attempts to reflect site and vintage as truly as possible, the 2017 Sauvignon is clearly from a cool year. Medium-gold in hue, the restrained nose is a quiet medley of citrus, tomato leaf, flint, salted nuts and toast, thanks to barrel maturation for a portion of the fruit. The palate is highly textural. There’s very little fruit here (for a brighter, more approachable SB this vintage, try this producer’s Petit Clos wine), and the finish feels like biting into a grape seed. But balance and complexity promises more interest in the coming years. Drink 2020–2025.
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.