International Sauvignon Blanc Day: My Marlborough Story

Happy International Sauvignon Blanc Day! If you’re not celebrating by cracking open a bottle of delicious Sauvignon Blanc today, get yourself to the shop and get involved!

I’ve got two Sauvignon Blanc recommendations for you today and both of them are from the beautiful country of New Zealand. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc exploded onto the bar and restaurant scene in the UK about ten years ago. I remember the word ‘Marlborough’ entering my brain for the first time since the Sex and the City days and seeing Carrie puff on a Marlboro Light every time Big got mentioned in conversation. I recall how easy the mouthful of words ‘Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc’ tripped off the tongue (and with such regularity) in bars and restaurants in Bath, where I lived at the time: ‘I’ll have a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc’; ‘It’s a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc’; ‘Have you tried a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc?’. It really wasn’t worth it if it wasn’t a Marlborough.

What was this Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc all about? Where did it come from? Why were people so crazy for it? When I tasted it for myself, I got it. It was so distinctive. That hit of high acidity got the engines revving immediately - wow! And then, that citrus. But it wasn’t just lemons and limes, it was pink grapefruit. And there was gooseberry and passionfruit. The passionfruit! Tropical! And then you had the greenness - that bit of asparagus and green bell pepper. But, back to the passionfruit. That was the lasting memory for me on the tongue. 

I didn’t drink white wine back then, but I did drink Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. It was one of the first wines I could detect immediately just by smelling it. The aromas alone would get my saliva glands going. Those sunny Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc days back in Bath, sitting at pavement tables on George Street - what a time!

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Since starting my wine studies, I drink as much white wine now as I do red. There have been so many new ones for my palate to experience: Albariño; Riesling; Gewürztraminer; Savagnin; Muscadet; all styles of Chardonnay. These are just some of my favourite whites that I’ve enjoyed discovering for the first time in recent years and I’ve neglected my old trusties.

I haven’t drank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc for a long time, so I am beyond excited to be opening two today on International Sauvignon Blanc Day and I am going to devour them with unbridled joy.

First up, Yealands (Yealands Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, 2019). Their vineyards are located in the Awatere Valley, right next to the ocean - so close the ocean, in fact, that their vines are often misted with sea spray. I love the idea of that. I like to think that the first sip is like a blast of salty sea air in the face! Their wines have a distinct minerality and salinity to them, and they are all about the freshness and purity. The 2019 vintage was born out of a hot and dry growing season. With no major weather events disrupting the harvest, the grapes were picked at their absolute optimum, ensuring those intense aromatics were retained. I’ll be tasting this wine today and will be posting my thoughts to my Instagram @skinandpulp. Make sure you check it out!

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Next, Little Beauty Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc 2019. This is a teeny tiny production wine (their Sauvignon Blanc plantings amount to only 0.10% of Marlborough’s prouction) made in the beautiful Waihopai Valley. This stunning area of craggy mountains and fresh flowing rivers possesses ideal conditions for making cool-climate aromatic wines. Picked from a single vineyard in the cool of the night, the aromas are said to be ‘reminiscent of a summer morning in the vineyard’. I’ll be looking out for honeydew melon, pear, pink grapefruit, mango, pea and kaffir lime leaf, with herbal and mineral notes, and a succulent, persistent finish. Sounds dreamy, no? Look out for my post on Instagram later today!

Both of these wines are made by women winemakers, which I love (Natalie Christensen for Yealands and Eveline Fraser for Little Beauty), and you can buy Yealands Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at Sainsbury’s, Co-Op, Nisa and Spar, and Little Beauty Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc here. Enjoy International Sauvignon Blanc Day today - I will be!

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Honest Grapes Wine Therapy: Grower Tasting with Lionel Faury