Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with King salmon tartar with horseradish dressing and Soba and katsobushi.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Another nicely groomed and balanced edition of this flagship wine. It has a layer of dried flowers, beeswax and dried wild grasses across more fruit-centered aromas like lime leaves, lime curd and subtly spicy French oak influence. The palate has a more savory start with hints of nougat, honey and passionfruit. Some pastry-like savory moments as it builds texture and weight before folding neatly into an attractive, pithy, lime-citrus finish. Drink now to 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
The most recent release of Te Koko seems tamer, more controlled than some previous vintages. It's Graves-like in style, offering up toast, vanilla and passion fruit notes, ample weight and a fine, silky finish that goes on for minutes. It embodies elegance and precision in place of wildness and raw power.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and distinctive, this opens with vivid floral details, featuring honeysuckle and peach aromas to the apricot and fleshy melon core. Very juicy lime acidity accents the spicy, honey-scented finish.
Cloudy Bay Vineyards, established in 1985, is today a partnership between champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and co-founder of Cape Mentelle Vineyards in Western Australia, David Hohnen. The Cloudy Bay team is committed to producing 'wines of region' and strives to enhance the pure, bracing flavors naturally afforded by the climate and soils of Marlborough. The winery and vineyards are situated in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough at the northern end of New Zealand's South Island. This unique and cool wine region enjoys a maritime climate with the longest hours of sunshine of any place in New Zealand. Cloudy Bay has estate vineyards located at prime sites within the Wairau Valley and long-term supply agreements with five Wairau Valley growers. The main varieties grown are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
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.