Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - and why I hate it so

Phil Parker runs Food & Wine tours around Auckland New Zealand


Sauvignon Blanc: according to our wine industry PR it is “the grape which put New Zealand on the map”. I personally tend to attribute that to plate tectonics, and the hand of the Almighty.

Either way, we can’t produce enough of it to satisfy UK and US fans of the crisp, fruity acidic white wine, predominantly sourced from Marlborough. And unfortunately, Cloudy Bay, due to their carpet-bombing overseas marketing campaign, is the knee-jerk Savvy associated with NZ.

“Hi. We just flew in from L.A. to Ahhkland. Can we go to Cloudy Bay?”

Our very new, raw Sauv Blancs taste like a smack in the mouth with a gooseberry-flavoured lemon. On the quiet, and if you prod them with mildly sharp sticks, most of our winemakers will dismiss it as a no-brainer: squash it in the autumn; stick it in a steel tank for three months. Add the SO2. Bottle it. Sell it in the spring.

Personally, I can’t stand it. As an aperitif, you might as well have freshly squeezed lime juice. One glass and my lips pucker, and my grumbling hiatus hernia screams out for more Losec as the rising tide of gastric lava threatens to burn a hole through my sternum.

However, some winemakers do strive for a more complex Sauvignon by introducing oak barrel ageing. This adds complexity to the flavours by softening acidity and lending a rounder character, which brings out mellow fruit flavours in the wine. Some good examples would be the Selaks Founders Reserve and West Brook’s Blue Ridge labels.

Over time, even an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc does take on more complex flavours as the acids mellow and the strident fruit flavours change to a more vegetal character. After three years, you get complex flavours of asparagus, tinned peas, rhubarb and a rounder more integrated flavour profile.

Sauvs from Hawkes Bay, by contrast are far more approachable in their youth, due to hotter longer ripening time. The flavours are softer and hint of trpoical fruits like pineapple, guava and melon; mandarine rather than lime/lemon.

I once tasted a 20 year-old Montana Sauv Blanc, and it had a wonderful mellow flavour not unlike asparagus rolls – with that hint of buttery softness and juicy, mushy asparagus spears.

I say save the Savvy and savour.