2024 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand

(91 points) The life of the party, this lucid, bombastic Savvy B offers up heady lime, lemongrass and pink grapefruit aromas, with a whisper of dried herbs below. There's a gently slippery quality to the texture. In rushes the limey acidity to dial it up a notch—or ten. Christina Pickard, Wine Enthusiast

TASTING NOTES

Color / Appearance: Pale lemon.

Aroma / Bouquet: Classical Marlborough and reflective of the warm summer with aromas of grapefruit, lemongrass, white currant, peach, exotic fruits and crushed herbs.

Palate: Pure and concentrated with intermingling flavors of grapefruit, white peach, lemongrass, passionfruit and citrus and a saline, mouth-watering finish. Medium bodied, the palate is powerful and dense yet retains elegance and freshness with a lingering, precise finish.

Cellaring: We recommend enjoying our 2024 Sauvignon Blanc while it is young and fresh, but the wine is capable of developing nicely beyond five years if carefully cellared.

Food Match: A perfect accompaniment to oysters and fresh seafood, Japanese cuisine, summer salads, light poultry and salty cheeses.

Serve: Lightly chilled.

WINE ANALYSIS

Alcohol: 13%

Residual Sugar: 2.1 g/L

Titratable Acidity: 7.1 g/L

pH: 3.23

TASTING NOTE

Colour / Appearance: Pale lemon.

VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION

Harvest Dates: 23rd March – 12th April 2023

Grape Growing: We are proud to source the fruit for this wine exclusively from Marlborough and to be certified with Appellation Marlborough Wine (AMW). A mix of company owned or managed vineyards, and contract grower vineyards, are pruned to between two and four canes on a vertical shoot positioned trellis. Shoot thinning, leaf plucking and trimming are used to achieve balanced vines, a healthy canopy and clean fruit.

Climate: The growing season began after a dry winter, with the soil water balance in deficit. Fewer inflorescences and then a protracted flowering window, resulted in poor fruit set and fewer berries per bunch in most areas. Dry conditions persisted, minimising disease threats and resulting in clean fruit. A spell of warm weather through late December and January, in combination with the lighter crop, resulted in a rapid physiological advancement. This trend continued until the start of harvest. Fortuitously, the headwaters of the Wairau and Awatere river systems received enough rain to keep irrigation schemes open through the season and into harvest, at which point a return to cool, crisp days became the norm. Fruit was harvested at more elevated sugar levels than the previous two seasons. Peak intake was from the 13th March - 29th March.

Winemaking: Fruit was machine harvested and pressed immediately with minimal skin contact.  After settling, the clear juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks at 16°C – 12°C with selected yeast strains to preserve pure sub regional characters and varietal flavors.  Wines sat on light yeast lees in tank for approximately 2 months prior to blending in July 24. The wine has been heat and cold stabilised, and sterile filtered.