Winemaker Notes
Brilliant pale gold with a glint of olive leaf, Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2025 is immediately lifted and expressive. Classic Te Mata flintiness is layered with lime juice, blackcurrant, gooseberry and fennel alongside notes of guava and passionfruit. The palate mirrors the intense aromatics, with vibrant citrus and tropical character giving a creamy midpalate and mouth watering freshness and persistence. This wine pops with energy and finishes long, moreish, and beautifully balanced.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2025 Estate Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc leads with notes of cassis, white currant and passion fruit, alongside hints of white pineapple and yellow guava. A highly detailed approach to viticulture at Te Mata enables smaller, more selective harvest picks, contributing to the precision and detail evident in the finished wine. The palate here is soft and textural yet also restrained and persistent, with impressive length and a distinctly mouthwatering acidity. Fermentation was managed with approximately 200 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units) retained in tank, while different yeast strains were employed across individual vineyard blocks to enhance complexity and site expression. This is very good.
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James Suckling
Aromas of melon, pears and lotus flowers follow through to a medium body with crunchy fruit and a crisp and delicious finish. Lots of Meyer lemon character at the end. Bone dry. Bring on the oysters.
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 eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.