96 Points - Top NZ Sauvignon Blanc "The 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Abstract Three Rows is a pure and sophisticated wine from, true to its name, three rows of a dry farmed parcel. It is bright and tangy yet savory. The fruit is pure and delicate, like a cloud. It is transparent and yet expansive in the mouth, having no heaviness. Light honey, nectarine, musky boxwood and oatmeal flavours abound with a light creamy character. Sensitive Sauvignon." Rebecca Gibb MW - Vinous April 2023

95 Points - "From the Dillons Point sub-region. Fermented and aged for 14 months in five-year-old French oak puncheons. This wine stands out in a crowd ... of sauvignons. For a start it has a rich, mouth-filling texture and real depth of fruit with a mouth-watering savouriness. Don't quaff it, savour it. This is serious sauvignon 22/6/2022" Bob Campbell MW

95 Points 'Outstanding' - "Complex and new, modern and enticing bouquet of lemon curd and lees spices, fresh peach and quince, there’s a natural soil smoky quality with a fine dried herb and natural varietal lift. Delicious with flavours of yellow apple and lemon, quince and peach stone, an orange barley sugar quality with mineral and floral herb tones. Acidity and soft saline qualities add crunch and texture while the core fruit flavours fill the mid palate and add lengthy as well as complexity. Delicious, fresh and complex. Best drinking from 2022 through 2029." Cameron Douglas MS, July 2022.

5 Stars "The distinctive, delicious, very harmonious 2019 vintage (5*) was designed to be a 'cellar-worthy' and 'savoury' Sauvignon Blanc. Hand-harvested in the Holdaway Vineyard, at Dillons Point, it was fermented and lees-aged for over a year in seasoned French oak puncheons. Bright, light lemon/green, it is mouthfilling, with fresh, rich, tropical fruit flavours, nutty notes adding complexity, and a finely textured, long finish. Drink now or cellar." Michael Cooper, August 2022.

17 Points "Sleek and fresh and great balance with just a tiny coconut note. Really interesting wine!" Jancis Robinson MW, 14 February 2023

17 Points "Subtle flinty notes, creamy, savoury, but no lack of fruit – it's just that the fruit is not the diva here. Lovely depth of citrus and blackcurrant leaf. Bone dry (hurray!), deeply textured, intense and mouth-wateringly fresh with a marked saltiness on the finish. Ageing well and slowly – the age is showing in a slight cedary character not in SB's often rather unpleasant sweetcorn phase. This has complexity, no excess, but masses of personality. At last, a bone-dry Sauvignon." Julia Harding MW, 7 February 2023

Vineyard: Holdaway Vineyard
Subregion: Dillons Point
Region: Marlborough
Vintage: 2019
Soil Type: Young alluvial silts over sand
Clone: Mass selection
Viticulture: Dry-farmed and regeneratively managed | Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand Certified (SWNZ)
Growers: The Holdaway family

Appellation Marlborough Wine Certified.

Winemaker's Notes:
If classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is all fruit and zing, Abstract exists in another dimension altogether. It’s our ‘Savoury Blanc’, where texture and aromatic complexity bedazzle, and where vineyard and winemaking contribute equally. Just three rows of a dry-farmed parcel are handpicked from the Holdaway Vineyard in Dillons Point. There’s an intense and seductive perfume of blackcurrant and white florals, while winemaking lends savouriness and flinty minerality. Wild fermented in seasoned French oak puncheons and lees-aged for 14 months, this is a wine rich in texture. With elegance and beautiful balance, it is for enjoyment now but will age with grace and dignity.