QHA_March 2018_Electronic_s

WINE with John Rozentals
Clive Jones.
His Paper
Nautilus
is the real
deal.
A SCRUMMY NEW RED
No other wine seems to ride such a precarious bow
wave of success on the Australian market as does
sauvignon blanc from the Marlborough region, at the
north-eastern end of the South Island.
It’s fairly easy to see why it overtook chardonnay as
Australia’s single-biggest wine three or four years ago.
Drinkers are confident with it. They stick their nose
into a glass and know straight away what they’ve got,
just from the unmistakable herbaceous, tropical-fruit
aroma, which some have rather ungraciously likened
to cats’ pee.
Much of the wine seems to come from overcropped
vineyards and lacks the palate structure to satisfy the
second-glass test for many drinkers, including this one.
Let alone a third-glass test!
A few vintages ago, Nautilus Estate winemaker, Clive
Jones, determined to do something about the situation,
making a 2015 The Paper Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc, a
wine styled more like a chardonnay and very dependent
on barrel-fermentation and maturation on yeast lees.
Personally, I applauded the attempt, but thought that
Jones had gotten off at Redfern. He just hadn’t quite
gone through with the job and left me wondering what
might have been.
With the 2016 vintage he repeated the exercise, this
time, I think, doing it properly. His 2016 The Paper
Nautilus is the real deal (see tasting notes below) and
I reckon joins the ranks of Cloudy Bay’s Te Koko in
having broken the mould of Marlborough sauvignon
and presenting a much needed new face to the variety
—one which will see it beyond the cult, but possibly
ephemeral, following it now has.
The name, incidentally, comes from an octopus-like
cephalopod also known as an argonaut, which isn’t
really a nautilus at all. The female builds a papery
nautilus-like shell to live in while her eggs hatch.
TOP SHELF with John Rozentals
THE PAPER NAUTILUS 2016
Marlborough Sauvignon
Blanc ($35)
NAUTILUS 2017
Marlborough Sauvignon
Blanc ($28)
TWIN ISLANDS 2017
Marlborough Sauvignon
Blanc ($18)
QHA REVIEW | 60
A gloriously complex dry white,
showing an unmistakable
sauvignon blanc edge to
the aroma but having so
much more as well — and
particularly pleasing depth on
the palate. I like the nuttiness
on the aroma, which I presume
comes from maturation on
yeast lees. Jones suggests
matching with oysters dressed
with chilli and lime. I’m not
disagreeing. Yum!
Loads of passionfruit
here and good palate
weight from use of fully
ripe, judiciously cropped
grapes. Just a tad (about
2 per cent) of the fruit
was given the Paper
Nautilus treatment and
fermented on barrel. If
you’re going to drink
Marlborough savvy,
I’d certainly
recommend this.
Much more in
the conventional
Marlborough savvy style
— and more towards its
usual price-point — but
at least it seems to be
made from genuinely
ripe fruit. No real
complexity, but citrusy
and pungent, with a
racy finish.