TWR Sauvignon Blanc 2022

Reviews

Bob Campbell, MW: 94/100. Smooth, seamless sauvignon with lemongrass, capsicum, lime, passionfruit and subtle mineral flavours. Refreshingly dry with a crisp, mouthwatering and lengthy finish. Refined and sophisticated wine. Drink 2022- 2026.

Wine Orbit (Sam Kim): 94/100. A beautifully styled Sauvignon, showing Granny Smith apple, nectarine, lime peel and fig characters on the nose. The palate displays pristine fruit flavours with refined texture and zesty acidity, finishing lingering and mouth-watering. Wonderfully expressive and harmonious with true varietal intensity and vibrancy. At its best: now to 2029.

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 93/100. A more Sancerre-like sauvignon blanc with sliced green apples, spiced pears, crushed stones and some gooseberries. Medium to full body. Round mouth-feel and steely acidity.

Decanter: 93/100 (Tasted by: Tina Gellie (at Lindley Hall, London, 07 Feb 2023). Weighty yet vibrant with a textured palate of nutty pear and ripe guava alongside greener elderflower and tomato leaf notes. Mouthwatering acidity and a long citrus finish really refreshes. Drinking Window: 2023 - 2025.

Cameron Douglas MS: 93/100. Pungent and a little understated, fruity and varietal, fresh herbs and minerality, fresh green pear skin and lemon, white peach and sage. There’sa fine complexity noted with the power and youth of the bouquet. On the aplate a lush, fresh wine with slivating acidity and flavours that mirror the bouquet. Plenty of acidity with white flesh fruits and citrus for contrast. There’s a gentle spice and pluhness about this wine, balanced, well made and lengthy. An excellent summer drink from 2022 through 2025+.

Tasting Note

Distinctive Awatere characters of elderflower, guava, and white currant, coupled with lovely ripe passionfruit & tropical notes and hints of basil and lime from the Wairau. These follow through to the palate - which is fine and soft with loads of fleshy fruit balanced by a ripe, juicy acidity and lingering minerality. There is real fruit weight here and that is complimented by lovely texture from the time on lees and the barrel parcels - It is utterly delicious!

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: White wine

Grape varial: Sauvignon Blanc

Food match: seafood, particularly oysters or lightly seared scallops. Spanner crab, wild onion, macadamia, smoked daikon, tofu.

Vineyard: This 2022 Sauvignon Blanc is a blend from three specially selected vineyards in two different sub-regions of Marlborough. Two of the vineyards are in the Wairau valley – Flowerday family & Te Whare Rā and the third is in the upper Awatere Valley – Shamrock. The growing conditions in the Awatere are characterised by cooler temperatures and slower ripening, which is all important for flavour development and ripe acidity. The wines from this sub-region tend to be more restrained in their youth but have great texture, structure and longevity. The blocks in the Wairau experiences the warmer days, longer sunshine hours and a bigger diurnal range. These climatic differences result in wines which have lovely fleshiness and texture, and which are characterised by riper tropicals and stone-fruit with a lovely line of minerality.

Vintage: Over the spring of 2021 we experienced great conditions over flowering which led to moderate crops and a nice, even set which always bodes well for very balanced, harmonious wines. We had no issues with frost and the summer that followed was generally dry and very even with no big heat spikes. We did experience some rain towards the end of February which gave the vines a nice boost to see them through till the beginning of harvest. We have described it as “the Goldilocks vintage” in that it was quite like the 2020 season = not too hot, not too cold, just right! The very even growing season meant that our start to harvest began on track with our long-term averages in mid - March and was completed by the first week in April. The resultant wines are very impressive with great depth of flavour and fleshiness whilst still exhibiting lovely purity of fruit, bright aromatics, and ripe, juicy acidity.

Winemaking: The larger parcels of fruit for this wine were select machine picked and the home block portion was all hand-picked and hand-sorted. The free-run and soft pressings parcels were combined for fermentation. The majority of the parcels underwent slow, cool fermentation in stainless, with 10% of the blend fermented at warmer temps in older French oak demi-muids. All parcels spent time on fine lees, post ferment for texture. This wine has not been fined and is suitable for vegans and vegetarians and anyone else who loves authentic, hand-made wines.

Alcohol: 13% vol

Residual sugar: 1 g/l

Total Acidity: 7,3 g/l

Wine style: dry

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulfites

Cellaring potential: This 2022 Sauvignon Blanc is drinking well now but Te Whare Ra is consciously making a style of Sauvignon that will benefit from some bottle age, so it will also develop with careful cellaring for 3 to 5 years.

Closure: Screwcap

Produced and bottled by: TE WHARE RA WINES, 56 Anglesea Street, Renwick, Marlborough, New Zealand

Can't get enough of Sauvignon Blanc? Check out our New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc assortment.