-
96
/ 100
James Suckling -
94
/ 100
Mike Bennie
White
Classification
Sauvignon Blanc
Variety
2011
Vintage
750ml (Bottle)
Bottle Size
New Zealand
Country
Marlborough,
Region
14.0%
Alcohol %
5-10 Years
Cellaring
Scores
96 / 100"The most complex of Marlborough sauvignons is looking the goods in this warmer vintage. There's a heady reductive layer that delivers flinty grapefruit notes and lemon pith. The palate texture is superb; starts on point and builds weight and layers of texture through the mid-palate with abundant gooseberry and lime flavor, then finishes pure, focused and true."
- James Suckling
94 / 100
"Gun to the head and/or desert island wine for best NZ sauvignon blanc, this would generally be it. Use of oak and lees not taken to heightened levels of trumpeting overtness, but judicious, has been the theme. So many have followed looking for the golden ticket, equating the extra winemaking as helping to make a more premium wine. Not so if you dont firstly have the fruit, and secondly the deft touch. Cue, James and Ivan. And then saying that there’s a distinctly struck match-meets-nutty/cedary oak quality taking over the bouquet, but it’s metered with stone fruit and floral aromas too. To taste, tight, tense and structured, with a flow of fresh fruitiness bound by briny minerality and more struck match/twigginess finishing with a barely-there nuttiness. It’s a bit shy right now, and time in glass gives some more body, but 2011 looks to be a more austere version of this wine than I’ve seen. There’s still grace and immense interest – it’s delicous and mouthwatering by each sip. Time will be kind too. Super."
- Mike Bennie
Tasting Notes
Section 94 is one of the world’s most distinct wines, and regularly named New Zealand’s greatest Sauvignon Blanc.
Bright straw-yellow colour with slight green hues, lighter on edge. The bouquet is firmly concentrated with deep aromas of greengages, nectarines and fresh herbs, harmoniously melded with complexing reductive gunflint and mineral layers.
The aromatics are intense and youthfully fresh, but stylishly in presentation, revealing white florals and lifted herb elements, along with an array of stonefruit. Dry to taste and full-bodied, rich, bold and concentrated flavours of green stonefruits, fresh herbs, white florals and gunflint complexities feature on a fulsome, well-structured palate.
This is mouthfilling and weighty with grip and presence, and the mouthfeel lively with refreshing, lacy acidity. The wine flows with power, texture and drive, leading to a long, dry finish with herb, greengage and minerally detail. This is a rich, powerfully structured and textural oa
Tasting Profile
- Light
- Full
- Low Tannin
- Tannic
- Sweet
- Dry
- Low Acidity
- High Acidity