Greywacke Wild Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, 2020     

100% Sauvignon Blanc, wild ferment and aged in oak for around 12 months. 

TASTING NOTE: Imagine a summer fruit salad of paw paw, honeydew melon and ripe, golden quinces – drizzled with citrus flower water and a squeeze of orange skin oil. A delicious floral fragrance and juicy tropical fruit, infused with a fennel-like herbal thread and a faint whiff of wood smoke. Fermented entirely with naturally occurring yeast, this is an alternative style of sauvignon blanc that is both intricate and textural, with a rich, succulent palate finishing crisp and long with a flinty dryness.

VITICULTURE: Fruit was sourced from various vineyard sites in the Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains, specifically in Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura. Soil types vary from the young alluvial deposits of Rapaura and Renwick, which contain high proportions of greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. A high percentage of the vineyards were trained using the divided Scott Henry canopy management system, with the balance on two- or three-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning).

WINEMAKING: Some vineyards were harvested by machine during cool (often cold) night time conditions and others by hand during the day. The grapes were lightly pressed to yield a modest volume of high-quality juice, which was then cold-settled prior to racking into French oak barriques, a small percentage of which were new. The juice was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation, the tail end of which continued for well over six months. The wine had occasional lees stirring and approximately two-thirds underwent malolactic fermentation. It was transferred out of oak prior to the following harvest and left on yeast lees for a further five months. The wine was bottled in September 2021 with alcohol 13.5%, pH 3.16 and acidity 6.3 g/l.