Winemaker Notes
Southern Clays is a special sub-region within the Wairau Valley, situated on the dry eastern foothills of Marlborough. This sunny, warm and sheltered vineyard site produces intense Sauvignon Blanc fruit with powerful aromas of fresh herbs such as rosemary or thyme, intermingled with exotic tropical fruits like mango. The palate is rich and weighty with flavors of ripe nectarines and apricots, finishing with a grapefruit zest acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Paradoxically, the 2017 Single Vineyard Southern Clays Sauvignon Blanc is the most restrained and the most powerful of the 2017 Sauvignon Blancs from Villa Maria. Subtle herbal hints add interest to notes of stone fruit, fig and passion fruit, while there's a creaminess to the mid-palate that imparts an extra layer of depth to this medium-bodied wine. It's mouth-filling and ripe, with a long, subtle finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
An all-around solid example of Marlborough Sauvignon, this wine is carried by lifted aromas of fresh lime, guava and passion fruit, with a lick of dried green herb and salty oyster shell. The palate takes a more austere turn. It's nicely balanced, chalky in texture and bone dry, with crunchy acidity and bright fruit. Again, an herbal and saline character runs along its spine.
Founded in 1961 from humble beginnings, Villa Maria is a story of pioneering spirit and a desire to champion the best of New Zealand wine.
From the cool climate region of Marlborough, famous for crisp, refreshing Sauvignon Blanc, to the sun-soaked Hawkes Bay producing world-class reds, their wine is a unique expression of their extraordinary land, passion for excellence and bold spirit.
Their portfolio of highly awarded wines is the most stylistically and regionally diverse in New Zealand, setting them apart and consistently delivering a rewarding wine experience.
As the leading winemakers in Marlborough with an unwavering focus on quality and sustainability, Villa Maria wines are distinctive, vibrant, and most importantly, delicious.
Today, Villa Maria is globally recognized and adored for bold, expressive, and exceptional New Zealand wines.
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.