te Pa Reserve Seaside Sauvignon Blanc 2025

Tasting Note

This wine possesses ripe and generous aromatics of passionfruit, guava, clementines and lime. The palate is dry, but full of fleshy citrus fruit, underpinned by a bright and crunchy mineral acidity. A moreish and unmistakeable impression of salinity speaks of the ocean and leaves no question as to the provenance of this wine.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: White wine

Grape variety: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Food match: Seafood, shellfish, salads, goat cheese

Wine region: Marlborough, New Zealand

Vineyard: Two of the historically best performing blocks in the MacDonald’s Wairau Bar Home Vineyard were selected for higher honours and additional yield and canopy management in 2023. These blocks were shoot thinned and had multiple leaf plucks. Seaside 4 (80%) runs parallel to the beach, at just 200 m from the sea. The soils are compositionally higher in sand and shingle and much lower in organic matter. These bony soils result in fruit with good acidity, citrus and floral notes, and a subtle and intriguing briny/saline character. Block 2 (20%) sits about 1200 m from the beach and 120 m from the Wairau River. It has rich alluvial soils, which support a healthy canopy and give ripe, fleshy stone fruit and exotic flavours.

Vintage summary: The major influence of the 2025 season was a warm weather period over Marlborough during flowering, resulting in excellent fruit set. The growing season remained dry, with a relatively mild January and February, followed by warmer conditions in March and a settled late summer. To balance the healthy crop levels, yield reduction was carried out across the blocks. The measured ripening pace allowed for thorough flavour development and optimal physiological maturity. The resulting wines showcase pure aromatics, refined acidity, ripe fruit, and delicate phenolics.

Winemaking: The fruit was handpicked and tipped directly to the press without crushing, and then pressed to stainless steel tanks for cold settling. Only the first cut of free run juice was taken for this wine. The winemaking was kept relatively straight forward, to achieve a pure expression of the vineyard. The juice was rough racked to ferment and inoculated in stainless steel tank. The ferment was left on gross lees for 10 weeks after completion to build in texture and palate weight, and left on light lees post racking for an additional 3 months.

Alcohol: 13.0% vol

Residual sugar: 2.5 g/l

Total acidity: 7.0 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulphites

Cellaring potential: 2028+

Closure: Screwcap

Ingredients: Raw materials: Grapes, Enrichments: Sugar, Preservatives: Potassium metabisulphite (E 224), Acidity regulators: Tartaric acid (E 334), Stabilisers: Yeast mannoproteins, Packaging gases: Nitrogen.

Produced and bottled by: te Pa Family Vineyards Ltd, 515 Wairau Bar Road, R.D.3, Blenheim Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand