Winemaker Notes
Vineyard sites in the warm Wairau Valley and further south in the cooler Awatere Valley are utilised for this wine. The Wairau vineyards are planted on the "Southern Clays" with heavier soils providing structure and body to the blended wine. The Awatere Valley vineyards are planted on gravelly free draining soils and due to the cooler nature of these sites, pungent notes of nettle, gooseberry, citrus and pea pod are found in the finished wine. The vineyards are all carefully managed with shoot and crop thinning to limit yield and maximise quality.
This is a very intense and powerful wine. True to its Marlborough origins its flavours are a mix of ripe tropical fruits, citrus and cooler notes of fresh herbs and pea pod. It is dry and full bodied but a crisp finish provides freshness and length.
This dry wine is a perfect match for most seafood and many Asian-styled dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: While I have only had limited exposure to the Esk Valley Sauvignon Blancs, I have always enjoyed them. The 2018 vintage is an excellent wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is well-built with beautiful aromas and flavors. Its lively and persistent ripe citrus notes should pair well with longneck clams and green scallions in a light soy sauce. (Tasted: May 3, 2019, Treasure Island, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Clean passion fruit flavors brighten this sauvignon, its brisk salinity and orange-pith acidity an easy match with a shrimp curry.
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.