Sauvignon Blanc at the top
Rebecca Taylor
Sauvignon Blanc is quite simply the most important grape variety in New Zealand. It is the foundation of our wine industry, and also the first impression we give to most of the world. The British wine critic Oz Clarke summed up the splash New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc made “No previous wine had shocked, thrilled, entranced the world before with such brash, unexpected flavours of gooseberries, passionfruit and lime, or crunchy green asparagus spears... an entirely new, brilliantly successful wine style that the rest of the world has been attempting to copy ever since.”
To fully understand what this is all about, try an international reference point, the best being Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France. Whereas a classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is all about fruit and zippy acidity, the French wines are about texture, minerality and poise. Put side by side, Marlborough can look like Britney Spears next to the Loire’s Michelle Obama. The words that we use to describe “Old World” wines are different from the words we use for “New World” wines. It’s relatively straightforward to come up with a string of words describing the fruit characters on the nose and palate, and they’re things we can relate to easily, like the smell of freshly cut grass. The “Old World” style is less direct, more esoteric.
There’s more to our Sauvignon Blanc than the simple, brash style, though, Churton, a Marlborough winery makes “New World wine tempered with Old World style”. What this means is that the Marlborough origins of the wine are evident in the distinctive fruit flavours, but that the wine is made in a less overt style, with an emphasis on structure. They are producing some of the best Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs I’ve seen, so if you think you’re a bit over Savvy and feel like something a bit more grown-up, give them a whirl!
Churton Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - The highly aromatic nose shows citrus, melon and floral notes together with a slight savouriness. On the palate the wine is textural, with restrained acidity, and again a slight savoury character supporting ripe fruit. $28.00
To fully understand what this is all about, try an international reference point, the best being Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France. Whereas a classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is all about fruit and zippy acidity, the French wines are about texture, minerality and poise. Put side by side, Marlborough can look like Britney Spears next to the Loire’s Michelle Obama. The words that we use to describe “Old World” wines are different from the words we use for “New World” wines. It’s relatively straightforward to come up with a string of words describing the fruit characters on the nose and palate, and they’re things we can relate to easily, like the smell of freshly cut grass. The “Old World” style is less direct, more esoteric.
There’s more to our Sauvignon Blanc than the simple, brash style, though, Churton, a Marlborough winery makes “New World wine tempered with Old World style”. What this means is that the Marlborough origins of the wine are evident in the distinctive fruit flavours, but that the wine is made in a less overt style, with an emphasis on structure. They are producing some of the best Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs I’ve seen, so if you think you’re a bit over Savvy and feel like something a bit more grown-up, give them a whirl!
Churton Sauvignon Blanc 2009 - The highly aromatic nose shows citrus, melon and floral notes together with a slight savouriness. On the palate the wine is textural, with restrained acidity, and again a slight savoury character supporting ripe fruit. $28.00
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