te Pa Oke Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Reviews

Winestate: 96/100.

Decanter: 95/100. Part of Must-try Sauvignon Blanc wines: 25 top scorers starting from £10: Roger Jones: Perfumed nose then into a luxurious style of Sauvignon. Clean, focused stone fruit – nectarines with a delicate bouquet of herbs and green vegetables. White nutty notes. Freddy Bulmer: Inviting pure fruit character, well-used oak. The acidity holds everything together and provides focus. I’d like a little more on the finish, but this is very smart. Cat Lomax: Waxy, pithy, savoury nose, toast and hazelnut hints. Fleshy citrus supported by some spice and more hazelnut; a creamy, rounded texture. Fresh acidity. Drinking Window: 2024 - 2028

NZ Wine Rater (Steve Bennett MW, Lynette Hudson, October 2022): 96/100. An enticing, complex, mellow, barrel-influenced bouquet with an impressive array of aromas including guava, gooseberry, ripe melon, cucumber skin, beeswax, and smoky, toasted sourdough. A rich, dry, textural style where the power and weight on the palate are quite striking but balanced by fine acidity and a long, beguiling finish. An engaging wine on all levels and is sure to stand the test of time with further bottle age.

Cameron Douglas MS: 94/100.  There’s no mistaking the desirable and alluring scents of barrel-ferment, sauvignon blanc varietal fruit, sweet herbs and a compelling complex sweet aroma of lees with a whisper of smoke and river pebbles. Flavours of citrus, lemon, preserved apple, golden kiwi-fruit, a leesy spice and barrel-ferment salty sweet air complexity. Herbs and tropical fruit flavours follow accentuated by acidity along with a youthful, vibrant silky texture. Balanced, well made and ready to drink from today.

Global Sauvignon Blanc Masters 2021: Gold. 

Tasting Note

Aromatically the wine gives impressions of oyster shells, citrus blossom, and dried herbs, all supported by lightly smoked oak with a hint of flint and vanilla pod. The palate is equally as complex and generous. Poached pear and melon are balanced by fennel and lime driven citrus. The oak provides a savoury foil to the wine; salted caramel and vanilla notes combined with marzipan and spice.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: White wine

Grape varial: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Food match: Seafood, shellfish, light poultry dishes

Wine region: Marlborough, New Zealand.

Vineyard: The fruit from the MacDonald Family Home Vineyard was sourced from two complimentary and contrasting blocks – Seaside and Block 1. The Seaside Block is compositionally higher in sand and shingle and has less organic matter. This block tends to give passionfruit and tropical flavours with nice bright acids. Block 1 has richer alluvial and sedimentary soils, which supports a healthy canopy and gives more tropical and exotic fruit flavours. The naturally low vigour, low yielding Redwood Hills vineyard in the Awatere Valley produces wines with strong textural and mineral elements. This cooler site results in wines which exhibit concentration, fresh acidity, and great length.

Winemaking: The fruit was hand-harvested and whole bunch pressed to give us some beautiful pristine juice to work with. This juice was dropped down, without settling to 320 L French oak cigars for fermentation with a mix of indigenous and non-saccharomyces yeast. The cigar shaped barrels were chosen as they increase the surface area of the lees, which helps to build weight and texture. The wine was left un-sulphured on gross lees over the winter. After nine months of maturation, a selection of the best barrels was then blended, finished, and bottled as the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Oke.

Alcohol: 13% vol

Residual sugar: 2 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulphites

Cellaring potential: 2026+. Delicious now but will continue to develop in bottle, highlighting the minerality of this wine. Enjoy over the next couple of years.

Closure: Screwcap

Produced and bottled by: te Pa Family Vineyards Ltd, 515 Wairau Bar Road, R.D.3, Blenheim Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand

Distributor: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany

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