2023 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

The 2023 Sauvignon Blanc is flinty and gray scale on the nose, with graphite, asphalt, white paper, preserved lemon rind and dried sage. In the mouth, the tropical fruit continues to be kept at bay, while the aroma notes continue through the length of the palate. this is a classy wine, all elegance and restraint. It's very different from the 2024—what I would classify as "more classical"—tasted alongside. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

Full screwcapped bottle 1,305 g. From the tricky, cloudy, cyclone-affected vintage 2023 when I was in New Zealand. Sourced from eight of their own vineyards within the Wairau Valley. Cropped at an average of 10 tonnes/hectare. The fruit was whole-bunch pressed, cold-settled before fermentation and was aged four months in tank. A portion of the wine was fermented using indigenous yeast. Bottled without fining. Smoky, green-veg nose. Just a little less exuberantly fruity than some other vintages. The wine finishes a little more suddenly than I would have expected but it's a creditable effort in a challenging year. (JR)

Full screwcapped bottle 1,310 g. 26-year-old vines in the Wairau Valley, though some vines were planted in 1984. Silty clay loams with some gravel. Hand-picked and whole-bunch pressing of fruit prior to cold settling then fermentation. 60% of this wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts. The wine is aged for 4 months in stainless-steel tanks then bottled without fining. TA 7.4 g/l, pH 3.14. Intensely aromatic and characteristically smoky, with marked reduction, a style that Dog Point have mastered so brilliantly. That smokiness is notable yet not excessive even if it is highly stylised. Behind the struck match is vibrant grapefruit and pear, immense depth and remarkable complexity for a young, unoaked white. Chewy texture and low pH make this a mouth-watering and persistent dry wine that is obviously Sauvignon Blanc but not just Sauvignon Blanc, and with better likely ageing capacity than most NZ SBs. Excellent purity and precision. I find this unspittable and feel sure it will be even better after another year in bottle. (JH)