KEY POINTS:
Flashback to a decade ago: I'm at a big tasting of New Zealand wines in London, making my way through the longest line-up of Kiwi sauvignons I've ever encountered. I'm picking up on those pungent herbs, grasping the gooseberries and salivating over the citrus. There's no doubt about it, these New Zealand sauvignons have something unique. My only issue is that they all taste so distinctly similar.
Fast forward to today and the situation and the wines are quite different. Much has happened to sauvignon in the past 10 years, with nothing more striking than how the volume produced of the variety has soared. Plantings now account for 41per cent of the country's vineyard area. It now covers more than half of the key sauvignon territory of Marlborough and represents a whopping three-quarters of our wine exports.
It's true that many of the mainstream labels have stuck to Marlborough's winning standard sauvignon formula, albeit in a riper, more tropically fruited vein due to viticultural advancements. However, as plantings push into new areas and more single estate and sub-regionally specific sauvignons emerge, there's certainly more variety in the variety nowadays.
This was a message the organisers of the Marlborough Wine Weekend were keen to communicate. Busing wine buffs from the Northern Wairau to the Southern Valleys and then further south over the hills to the Awatere, this vinous odyssey illustrated that not all sauvignon is the same, even from within one region.
There were the ripe and tropical examples from the warmer northern Wairau Valley whose stony soils provide the pungency of many of its sauvignons. In the cooler southern valleys, more texture could be detected, with intensity derived from the grapes' longer time on the vine. And over in the Awatere Valley, Marlborough's coolest and driest sub-region, the sauvignons exhibited tomato stalk and cut grass aromatics, with racy acidity and mineral notes.
As space runs out in Marlborough's original northern vineyard area, there's been a surge in plantings in Awatere, where around a third of Marlborough's grapes are now grown. As these grapes come to play an increasingly prominent part in Marlborough's big regional sauvignon blends, we could see styles start to shift towards a more Awatere spectrum. Being a fan of the Awatere, I've no problem with this. However, it is starting to prove something of a headache for winemakers endeavouring to expand their blends while striving to maintain a consistent house style.
So what's next for sauvignon blanc? Jeff Clarke, chief winemaker at Pernod Ricard NZ, thinks that when Marlborough reaches planting capacity in the next few years there will be more focus on sauvignon's top tiers.
We already produce a handful of impressive reserve sauvignons and in the future we're likely to see more.
I once wondered whether the world really required so many New Zealand sauvignons. However, the diversity I've seen since has convinced me that as long as this continues, the variety should keep its freshness in the years ahead.
Saint Clair Pioneer Block 1 Foundation Sauvignon Blanc 2007 $26.95
Recent years have seen Saint Clair release a series of single vineyard wines under their Pioneer Block label, which highlight the striking differences between sub-regions and vineyard sites. This powerful classic Wairau style, with its pungent passionfruit nose, succulent tropical fruit and salty citrus tang, hails from the Foundation vineyard where Saint Clair sources grapes for its flagship Wairau Reserve Sauvignon.
From Glengarry, First Glass, Caro's.
Dog Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc $24.95
There are some seriously good sauvignons being made in Marlborough's Southern Valleys. This intense and elegantly textural example with its guava fruit, hints of basil and silky citrus mineral spine is from former Cloudy Bay chief viticulturalist and head winemaker Ivan Sutherland and James Healy's southern situated Dog Point Vineyard.
From Fine Wine Delivery Company, Caro's.
Astrolabe Awatere Sauvignon Blanc 2007 $24.95
An exquisite example of an Awatere sauvignon, which exudes this sub-region's hallmark tomato stalk character, zingy grapefruit acidity and mineral notes over vivid greengage and passionfruit.
From Caro's.
