Winemaker Notes
The 2022 Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc displays intense lifted aromas of passionfruit, lemongrass and ripe grapefruit. The palate introduces delightful lime zest flavors with mouth-watering intensity finishing with a strong textural component.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Sauvignon Blanc is so acidic—but it's exciting! I laughed as I tasted this wine initially, the acid was prodigious. But I like it. It provides cut-through and a certain level of sophistication. This is a classy estate making classy wines. It's refreshing, like I just swam in the ocean.
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Wine Enthusiast
Like the shell pictured on its label, there's quite a bit of saline oyster shell, flint and smoky reductive notes to start on this classy Sauvignon. The lime and passion fruit aromas, along with dried green herbs, peek through the cracks. Flint and shell nuances continue on the palate. Some chalky textural weight counterbalances the fleshy fruit and crisp acidity. There's a lingering lime and herb finish.
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Wine Spectator
Incredibly generous and harmonious, with ripe peach, tangerine and mango flavors that are fleshy and juicy, plus lime zest, makrut lime leaf and mineral details. Reveals white pepper and orange blossom accents that linger on the finish.
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Decanter
“A blend of fruit across Marlborough's three main subregions, giving a well-rounded, classically styled Sauvignon Blanc with a real hit of bracing grapefruit acidity, lemon sherbet zing and appealing green notes of fennel, lime and blackcurrant leaf.”
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James Suckling
Aromas of freshly chopped chives, blood oranges and peaches. Medium-bodied with silky texture. Citrus acidity brings life to the stone fruit palate. Elegant feel. Sustainable.
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.