97 points - "2026 Sauvignon Blanc of the Year Score awarded by the Halliday tasting panel at the annual Awards judging. MB writes: Tip-top release of a regional stalwart. Classic lime and passionfruit characters with faint ginger, vanilla cream and pink grapefruit. Good concentration of flavour, length, too, with some fine, dusty pucker doing pleasing things. Excellent in its way, elevating a simple wine approach so well. Go in." - Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

–Assessment:
Lively, tightly structured wine but with a supple mid palate and a fine finish. The crisp acid edge balances the wine.

Aroma:
Gentle fragrance of herbs and spice. Complex and understated. Nothing green.

Colour:
Pale straw with a light green tinge.

Palate:
Fresh juicy flavour with a racy savoury acid edge. Long and subtle.

Oak maturation:
None.

pH:
3.11

TA (g/L):
7.4

Closure:
Screw cap

Serving suggestion:
Cool to cold. Best between 5 and 10°C.

Food suggestion:
Ideal with seafood but can be enjoyed with a wide range of foods or on its own.

Cellaring:
Will develop the character of classically aged Sauvignon with time. Can be enjoyed young and will surprise those who cellar it with its finesse and complexity.

Winemaking:
Crush, de stem, gently air bag press. Clear settle juice and cold ferment to dryness. Our approach is to make the wine as naturally as possible with minimal additions. The fresh aromatics of the fruit are retained and, with gentle air bag pressing, harsh extractives are not generated.

Vintage:
Our seasons are significantly influenced by La Nina/El Nino and the IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole). These are indexes driven by where the warm and cool waters of both Pacific and Indian Oceans lie. In 2023/24 the result was a cool winter and later bud burst than average followed by a cooler and wetter Spring driven largely by the warm waters North off Australia in the Western Pacific. This was followed by a mild summer and warm autumn. Heat Degree Days (HDD) for the season was 1281 close to our average of 1275 and we picked our Sauvignon on 10th March which is 14 days earlier than our average harvest date of 24th March. The late bud burst from the cool wet winter and slow start to the growing season with a very cold October meant a slow start but the warm autumn coupled with very low crops meant early ripening. Mercifully the ripening period was free from heat extremes. Growing season rainfall was 193 mm. This is 82mm less than our long term average of 275 mm influence by a very wet November and December 23 in which we had 146mm of rain. Crop levels were extremely low at 0.6 kg per vine. Part of this is possibly an ongoing effect of the fires and the fact that so much of our vineyard needed to be retrained. Normally we harvest about 2.5kg per vine. Mercifully we were free of fungal diseases and lovely ripe, high acid fruit was harvested in fine weather. Our old largely dry grown vines do show the benefit, I believe, from deep roots sustaining them rather than more shallow ones subject to downpours and dry spells. The low crops are a blessing in one way in that they ripen fully and in late seasons that is most important as we head into late April with cold, wet weather likely.