Winemaker Notes
Imagine yellow-fleshed peaches, rockmelon, and blackcurrant – a sponge cake with lemon icing, chamomile, and hints of rose petal – this is a delicately perfumed and deliciously ripe-fruited interpretation of Marlborough sauvignon blanc. The palate is both subtle and textural, showing considerable ripeness and concentration, with a crisp and long, juicy finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Attractive, lime-laced fresh cream and subtly waxy, grassy aromas, too. The palate has attractive passion-fruit and lime flavors with smooth and gently minerally build. Holds long. Passion-fruit finish. Drink now.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The always delicious Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc has once again come through as an excellent wine. The 2019 vintage is wildly appealing. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits signature aromas and flavors of dried herbs, citrus peel, and fresh grapefruit. Enjoy it with a dozen raw oysters. (Tasted: April 30, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Subtle scents of snap peas mark the nose of the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. There's passion fruit as well, plus pink grapefruit and a slight crushed tomato-leaf component. It's similarly complex on the palate, where it's medium-bodied, with a strong core of grapefruity acids that give it backbone and length.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine shows oodles of bright citrus, melon, stone fruit, green tea, tomato leaf and white spice characters. The laser-sharp acidity provides a beautiful balance to the slippery, creamy texture, keeping the fruit bright and tangy.
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.