Those were the days - when the wine world met Marlborough Sauvignon

Leading British wine writer Oz Clarke clearly recalls the moment he discovered Sauvignon Blanc. “A wine that took the whole concept of green and expanded it, stretched it and pummelled it, and gloriously reinterpreted it on a riot of gooseberry and lime zest, green apples, green pepper, sliced through with an ice-cold knife of steel.”

Speaking at the inaugural International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Marlborough in 2016, Oz talked of his first taste all those years ago, finding “piles of fresh green grass, the leaves from a blackcurrant bush and, in case all of this was just too much to take, a friendly dab of honey and the chaste kiss of peach.” It tasted of a whole new world of wine, he said. “There had never before been a wine that crackled and spat its flavours at you from the glass.”

While grapes had been grown in Marlborough as early as 1873, it wasn’t until the 1970s that commercial plantings began. After intense research, Montana’s Frank Yukich and viticulturist Wayne Thomas determined Marlborough’s climate and soils were a perfect potential grape growing region. Their decision proved pivotal.

By the 1980s grapes were making serious inroads into traditional sheep and crop growing areas of the Wairau Valley, and Marlborough’s unique Sauvignon Blanc was making an impact on the world wine stage.

The free draining soils, maritime climate and long ripening season was producing a zingy and zesty Sauvignon Blanc with fresh acidity and ripe tropical fruit notes – the likes of which the world had not tasted before.

In 1986 the irrepressible Irishman Ernie Hunter, who had planted grapes on Rapaura Rd, took a Hunter’s Wines Fume Blanc to London, where it took the world by storm, winning a gold medal for the best non-Chardonnay at the Sunday Times Vintage Festival. Meanwhile, Cloudy Bay was producing a distinctively aromatic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that made the world look seriously at Marlborough. As the march of the vines continued, so did the growth of wineries, with Sauvignon Blanc finding markets all around the world.

Today’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs typically display zingy acidity, with a leap-out-of-the-glass pungency and heady aromas of passionfruit, gooseberry and freshly cut herbs.

They have a distinctive style that reflects the region’s hot days and cool nights. Those long summer days allow the sugars, or brix, to build, while the cooler nights allow the fruit to retain the acidity Sauvignon is best known for.

American wine critic Matt Kramer, also speaking at the 2016 Sauvignon Celebration, said Marlborough had created one of the world’s most successful wines, that could be easily identified in a blind tasting. “You’ve created a terroir the world has never known. You’ve taken a variety that is grown in practically every place but the moon, and you have created something nobody else has created.”

New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in particular, was a fantastic accomplishment, he said. “It’s not something to be taken lightly.”

Speaking three years on, at the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc Celebration, Matt said New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was the “most preposterous, most ridiculous success story in the history of bottled wines”. No one could find New Zealand on the map, but Sauvignon Blanc had captured the world’s attention in a very short space of time. “If you think about it, no one anywhere has ever achieved what you have achieved here.”

Instantly recognisable as soon as it is poured, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has changed the way the world drinks. Share your uniquely Marlborough stories using #sauvblancday #winemarlborough and #nzwine and check out www.sauvblancday.nz

This article was first published in April 25, 2020