Winemaker Notes
This hand-crafted sparkling wine is delicious with canapés, freshly shucked oysters, sushi and seafood but really any time is a good time for a glass of bubbles!
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Huia's 2017 Traditional Method Blanc de Blancs is all Chardonnay, barrel fermented and aged as base wine. The second fermentation in bottle was followed by 32 months aging on the lees prior to disgorgement and a dosage of just six grams per liter. All toasty brioche and ripe citrus on the nose, it's a lovely sparkler, medium-bodied and rich but refreshing at the same time, with a lingering, elegant finish. Delicious now, it should continue to drink well for up to a decade.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
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.