This 2017 Sauvignon Blanc is a blend from two special Marlborough vineyards in two difference sub-regions. One vineyard is in the upper Awatere Valley, owned by Guy & Jane Lissaman, and the second being our certified organic home block vines here in Renwick (Wairau Valley). The growing conditions in the Awatere Valley are characterised by cooler temperatures and slower ripening than in the Wairau, 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. Our Te Whare Ra home block experiences the warmer days of the Wairau Valley and a bigger diurnal range. These climatic factors combined with our clay loam soil here results in wines which have great texture and fleshiness and are characterised by riper tropical notes with stonefruit with a lovely line of minerality.
The Awatere parcel of fruit for this wine was select machine picked and the Wairau part was hand-picked and hand-sorted. The free-run and soft pressings parcels were combined for fermentation. The juice underwent slow cool fermentation in a number of different tanks, with 12% 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.
Vintage 2017 had some potential challenges, with the tail end of two cyclones which brought some significant rains to the region. But our careful yield management combined with meticulous canopy management meant that our vines produced ripe flavours and were ripe before the arrival of the big rain events. We had all our fruit off early and had some of the cleanest fruit we have ever seen. The resultant wines are finer boned than the 2016s with more moderate alcohols but with great purity of fruit, bright aromatics and ripe, juicy acidity. Alcohol 13%; pH 3.30; TA 7.4g/L; RS 0.8g/L.
Our 2017 release shows distinctive Awatere characters of guava, white currant, and elderflower coupled with lovely ripe tropicals and hints of basil and lime from the Wairau fruit. These follow through to the palate - which is fine and soft with vibrant fleshy fruit and great texture which are both balanced by a ripe, juicy acidity and lingering minerality. It is utterly delicious! - Anna Flowerday, TWR
Anna Flowerday hails from McLaren Vale and kicked off her career there amid a thoroughly talented pack of young winemakers in the mid-1990s. She worked for Hardys for seven years all up, culminating in an aromatically formative stint at Leasingham in Clare Valley. It was during her time at Hardys that she met and fell in love with Jason Flowerday, a third-generation viticulturalist from Marlborough. Eventually they struck out together and in 2003 bought Te Whare Ra, home to one of the oldest vineyards in Marlborough, originally planted in 1979. Together they manage the estate with a combination of organic and biodynamic practices and have cemented this region's reputation not only as an impeccable source of aromatic whites but also as a force to be reckoned with for both Pinot Noir and Syrah.