Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc 2020

Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc 2020Dry style Grapefruit Rockmelon Mouth watering "Ripe, almost luscious Sauvignon Blanc with melon, tropical fruits, passionfruit, guava and tree fruit flavours supported by tangy, mouth watering acidity. An unusual, distinctive and attractive wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Mar 2021 "Delightfully fruited and inviting, the bouquet shows green apple, grapefruit, rockmelon and dried herb aromas, leading to a lively palate offering juicy

• Dry style
• Grapefruit
• Rockmelon
• Mouth-watering

"Ripe, almost luscious Sauvignon Blanc with melon, tropical fruits, passionfruit, guava and tree-fruit flavours supported by tangy, mouth-watering acidity. An unusual, distinctive and attractive wine" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Mar 2021

"Delightfully fruited and inviting, the bouquet shows green apple, grapefruit, rockmelon and dried herb aromas, leading to a lively palate offering juicy fruit intensity backed by crisp acidity, finishing long and tasty" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jun 2021

Our 2020 Sauvignon Blanc has great aromatic power with nectarines and fresh lucerne hay like earthiness. On the palate, this wine is dry and full-bodied with lush white peach and passion fruits and an underlying dry herbal lift. A creamy mouth feel is balanced by mouthwatering lemony acidity and good flavor persistence.

The majority of the Sauvignon Blanc is planted on the most northern part of the vineyard which is cooler and more suited to this variety. All of our Sauvignon Blanc is hand-thinned and machine harvested before it is pressed into juice on site. The planted clones are a mix of University of California Davis (UCD) 1 and Mass selection (MS) on a mix of 101-14, 3309 and Schwarzmann rootstock, with a quarter of the vines Bordeaux clones BDX 316 and BDX 317, on Riparia Gloire rootstock. The Bordeaux clones tend to give a definite lift to Sauvignon Blanc flavors, with less cut grass and more tropical flavors providing a more artisan style, balanced, elegant wine which complements a range of foods.

The 2020 growing season started off with excellent spring and very good early flowering in December with unusually warm temperatures. This was followed by a long dry summer. Harvest started 24th March and went through 9th April. During harvest we focused on the best of the best vineyard blocks of Sauvignon Blanc; those with yields as low as eight tonnes per hectare. Grapes from these lower yielding sites give the wine a more concentrated flavor profile. The wine was mostly fermented cool with long slow fermentations to retain aroma and fruitiness. A proportion of the blend was aged on yeast lees for an extended amount of time for added texture and creaminess. A very small percentage (< 2%) of the best components were fermented in new and used French oak barrels. The wine was blended in September and bottled in October, eight months after harvest.

Food Pairing: Pair Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc with arugula and feta salad, pasta carbonara or freshly shucked oysters on a sunny day.