Bold claims: Is Marlborough really the sauvignon blanc capital of the world?

On this sequence, Stuff Journey investigates how locations got here to be identified for sure issues and whether or not these “daring claims” are legitimate.

I really like a very good Marlborough sav, however the rivalry that the area is the sauvignon blanc capital of the world is, properly, contentious.

France, in spite of everything, is taken into account the birthplace of sauvignon blanc, having grown the zingy inexperienced grape selection since at the least the sixteenth century.

The Californian vine which spawned New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc trade didn’t arrive within the nation till about 1970, and we didn’t handle to provide it commercially for one more 4 years.

Desirous to experiment with totally different grape varieties, West Auckland brothers Invoice and Ross Spence tracked down cuttings from the vine on a authorities trial block at Corbans Wines simply earlier than they’d have been ripped out. Chief viticulturist Joe Corban informed them they might assist themselves because the then-Ministry of Agriculture had little interest in them.

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The brothers produced New Zealand’s first industrial amount of sauvignon blanc – some 400 bottles – at their tin shed Matua Valley vineyard in 1974, solely to search out Kiwi palates weren’t prepared for it.

“The fruit was distinctive and had very highly effective and aggressive aromas and flavours which have been a shock to the palate of the New Zealand wine client,” Ross informed NZ Winegrower journal.

“They have been extra used to Muller Thurgau which was normally bottled with a beneficiant addition of candy grape juice…”

It wasn’t till Montana (now Brancott Property) started producing sauvignon blanc in Marlborough within the Eighties that Kiwis actually got here round to the range. By the mid-80s, the area’s savs, with their zingy acidity and heady aromas of tropical fruit and freshly lower grass, had develop into world-famous.

Nowadays, the area has the very best focus of sauvignon blanc plantings on the earth.

“Nowhere on the earth has develop into as well-known (for a wine selection) as quick,” Marlborough winemaker Anna Flowerday says.

“And I believe that claims loads about how properly suited Marlborough’s local weather is to rising sauvignon blanc… The sauvignon blanc right here was simply so distinctively totally different from sauvignon blanc from anyplace else that it captured the world’s consideration.”

The area’s success on the world sauvignon blanc stage is all of the extra spectacular when you think about New Zealand produces only one per cent of the world’s wine.

“We actually punch above our weight, as New Zealand does normally,” Flowerday, who owns Te Whare Ra, dwelling to Marlborough’s oldest vines, along with her husband Jason, says.

“Quite a lot of the bigger corporations right here most likely export to 60 or 80 totally different nations – that’s actually getting the title on the market.”

On a nationwide stage, the Marlborough wine area reigns supreme when it comes to scale. In 2020, the area harvested 343,036 tonnes of grapes – 77 per cent of New Zealand’s whole grape harvest – from greater than 27,000 hectares of vines.

With some 90 per cent of the nation’s sauvignon blanc plantings, it’s definitely Aotearoa’s capital of the grape selection. And Grasp of Wine Rebecca Gibb reckons the area’s unsurpassed focus of sauvignon steadiness offers it a “respectable” declare to the world title.

“Marlborough has made a splash within the white wine world with its tropical but inexperienced expression of sauvignon blanc,” says UK-based Gibb, who lived in New Zealand for six years.

“Its exuberant character awoke many drained palates, and it’s actually distinctive.”

Nonetheless, each she and Flowerday really feel France, and particularly the Loire Valley, additionally has a powerful declare to the world title.

“The primary document of sauvignon blanc being planted in France was within the Loire in 1534, so I believe they’d be a bit miffed if Marlborough, which didn’t plant sauvignon till (the mid-70s) – some 441 years later – was considered the go-to place for sauvignon,” Gibb, writer of Wines of New Zealand, says.

“What’s extra, for those who requested a Marlborough winemaker the place to search out the best sauvignon blanc on the earth, they’d most likely be mendacity in the event that they didn’t point out producers within the Loire appellations of Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé.”

A few two-and-a-half-hour drive south of Paris, Sancerre and Pouilly Fume stay reference factors for sauvignon blanc producers worldwide, Gibb says.

“They’re extra restrained kinds that specific the place from which they arrive. Many New Zealand producers are looking for to make extra kinds in that mould.”

Flowerday thinks of Sancerre savs as extra “austere” than their fruit-forward Marlborough counterparts, however says “we undoubtedly have to provide them a nod. (Sancerre) is the ancestral dwelling of sauvignon blanc for sure”.

Whereas some have begun to tire of basic Marlborough sav (final 12 months, Commerce and Enterprise New Zealand launched a marketing campaign to deal with its waning reputation in Australia), Flowerday says it may be very totally different in several sub-regions.

The Awatere Valley’s cool, dry local weather produces citrusy savs which are typically extra “restrained” and “elegant”, she says. These from the hotter Wairau Valley are typically “weightier” with tropical fruit flavours, whereas Southern Valleys savs are sometimes on the “richer” aspect, she provides.

“Individuals may suppose they know Marlborough sauvignon blanc, however they’re usually fairly gobsmacked once they strive stuff from totally different sub-regions aspect by aspect. I believe that is our subsequent chapter – beginning to showcase these variations between the sub-regions.”

Gibb says Marlborough winemakers can’t afford to be complacent if they need the area to retain its famous person standing, noting that Chile and South Africa are additionally producing internationally famend savs.

“Then there’s Bordeaux, which is extra usually considered a pink wine producer, however its sauvignon blanc, usually blended with semillon, may give you goosebumps. And over in Australia, the producers of Margaret River are following Bordeaux’s lead, making sauvignon-semillon blends with crisp, grassy characters.”

Gibb, who opinions wines for New York-based publication Vinous, says she has come to desire the extra restrained type of sav typical of the Loire Valley.

“Whereas the intense, tropical flavours of basic sauvignon blanc first attracted me to Marlborough, I’m now a fan of the purer, extra restrained kinds. They’re usually grown organically, lovingly tended and take a low intervention method: Hand harvesting, permitting the ambient yeast to do the fermentation as a substitute of including packet yeast, typically fermenting in barrels reasonably than stainless-steel tanks, and constructing texture reasonably than merely specializing in wham-bam aromatics.”

When you’re on the lookout for Marlborough savs with comparable traits, she recommends testing Greywacke, Churton or Clean Canvas.

Flowerday significantly enjoys natural wines produced by small, family-run wineries.

“Some folks get wine from right here below contract and put their very own label on it, however my coronary heart’s extra for the people who find themselves right here for the long run and Marlborough’s all they do,” she says.

Clos Henri, run by a household who hail from Sancerre, and Huia are two of her favorite native producers. The previous produces a spread of savs created from grapes grown in several soils, whereas the latter crafts what she describes as “a stunning textural sauvignon blanc”.

Not surprisingly, Flowerday is “100 per cent” certain Marlborough deserves a world title for its sav, though she feels the Loire Valley does too.

“Marlborough is also known as the ‘sauvignon blanc capital of the New World’ as a result of quite a lot of the European wine areas have been producing wine for hundreds of years and we haven’t. And I might 100 per cent declare that title for us.

“However Sancerre is the ancestral dwelling of sauvignon blanc. It’s the sauvignon blanc capital of the Outdated World for certain.”

Do you could have a “Daring Declare” we must always examine? Tell us within the feedback or e-mail travel@stuff.co.nz