WineNZ Summer 18-19 (1)

What will be Marlborough sauvignon
blanc’s Apple? Who knows, but it may
already be out there somewhere.
Or it could be in Marborough. A number
of Kiwi wineries have been experimenting
and it is possible that one may hit the
jackpot. In a bid to encourage these folk,
in our own tiny way, we introduced a
second category for sauvignon blanc for
the summer tasting. This was because it is
difficult to compare aged or experimental
wines against the range of 2018 standard
sauvignon blancs that will head offshore
and earn the country a billion dollars.
Even giving the wines in this new
category a star rating is difficult, as some
divided the judges much more than the
standard sauvigon blanc ever could.
When premium sauvignon blanc is
discussed, Didier Dagueneau is usually
mentioned.
The Loire winemaker, who died in an
ultra-light plane crash in 2008, was a
perfectionist. His vineyards were extremely
low yield and hand-picked in multiple
passes.
Many of his wines were intended for
cellaring and he used oak, which is unusual
for sauvignon blanc.
His son Benjamin carries on his father’s
work and the Dagueneau winery’s Silex
wine (meaning “flint”) is still considered
by some to be the pinnacle of sauvignon
blanc production.
For those who want to see what all the
fuss is about, Dagueneau wines are available
from some of the big wine retailers in New
Zealand. I haven’t seen Silex for a while,
but the other top-tier single vineyard, oaked
wine – Pur Sang (meaning “thoroughbred”)
is out there in the shops.
So, Marlborough makes great picked,
poured and peed before Christmas
sauvignon blanc, we know Didier’s
techniques for making premium SB, so
we’re on to something, right?
Cloudy Bay has been playing around in
this area since 1996 with their Te Koko.
But after nearly 20 years – the wine was
first released to the public in 2000 – it still
only makes up about five per cent of their
sauvignon blanc production.
The wine is good – wild fermentation
and aged in oak –and two years ago in
this tasting it was judged to be five-star
by the judges.
That wine was made by senior winemaker
Tim Heath, who has since shot through to
take a job back in his native Australia. So
I’ve no idea what the wine’s future is, or if
a new broom will brush in a new direction.
But what I do know is that the wine was
dreamed up and first produced when the
company’s founding winemaker, Kevin
Judd, was still at the helm.
Zhuoqun Liu gets in to her work
And Kevin is still making spectacular
premium sauvignon blanc, using wild yeast
and old oak and he still enters competitions
from time to time – usually when he’s
confident enough to know he’ll probably
win, if the judges are any good.
He slipped his Greywacke Wild
Sauvignon into our tasting and it was
the standout in the “older and alternative
section”.
However, in some ways it was a fish
out of water. As judge Barry Riwai said,
it was hard to judge in the company it
was keeping.
He said it would have been more
interesting if there had been more oakdriven
examples to compare with.
It has to be said, there were a couple of
other barrel-fermented, non Marlborough
sauvignon blancs entered in the tasting,
but they didn’t make it into the star
categories, even though they’re produced
by two top wineries. I’m not sure what
that proves – possibly that barrels are not
the answer, or that it doesn’t matter what
you do with sauvignon blanc if its not
from Marlborough, it still won’t impress
the judges.
Barry added during the blind tasting that
Wild Sauvignon was very Bordeaux-like.
He noted meal and cedary oak. Some char
too. It was a wine with a creamy, milky,
yeasty palate, he concluded.
When I sampled a glass after the
tasting my first thought was chardonnay
– presumably because of the oak. I’ll be
interested to try it again over the holidays,
up against a glass of Kevin’s five-star
chardonnay, as well as against a good,
unoaked 2018 sauvignon blanc.
Of the two sauvignon blancs he produces,
Kevin prefers the Wild Sauvignon.
“There’s not much fruitiness, as it has the
influence of the wild yeasts, the malolactic
alternative sauvignon blancs | tastings
influence, the barrel influence – there’s a lot
more going on. It ages far more gracefully
than the classic style, he said.
Of the other wines in the older/oaked/
interesting section, Mission’s 2017 example
performed very well. It would have been
sitting high in the four star section if it had
been in with the 2018s.
However, this was a case of a traditional
Marlborough sauvignon blanc from last
year’s vintage showing its style, rather
than it being a different type of sauvignon
blanc, such as Wild Sauvignon or Te Koko.
A great wine, though. I guess it shows the
old lady of Hawke’s Bay can pick up her
skirts and dance to a new Marlborough tune.
While Mission may have a CEO from
South Africa, a wine that pushed the
Marlborough sauvignon blancs hard was
actually from South Africa. Look out
Marlborough, you may just have a serious
rival. (See story on next page).
Then we had sauvignon blanc in a can.
The Savvy Society wine, entered by Archer
McRae Beverages, was Marlborough fruit
from 2018, so could have been in the first
flight – but I guess the cans freaked out
the stewards. However, it was tasted by the
same tasting team and would have been
sitting midfield in the three-star category
if it had been in the earlier flight.
The guys liked the wine, and while
Barry Riwai picked it as not being from
Marlborough, no one noted that it tasted of
tin, or didn’t come from a bottle, so cans
could have a future if the market demands
it and the economics make sense.
That might seem a bit freaky for those
of us still mourning the corkscrew but, in
the words of Bob Dylan, times they are
a changin’.
Matt Kirby warming to the task in hand.
www.winenzmagazine.co.nz
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