Cool as a cucumber! It’s unmistakeably a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc but without being overwhelmingly so. Whereas some examples can be pungent and almost aggressively green and herbaceous, the Meltwater has a more controlled and focused frame with refined flavours and a cool zesty, mineral edge, giving it an elegance that some lack. The nose is highly appealing and widens your eyes with its gleeful burst of passion fruit, chopped coriander, gooseberry fool and kiwi scattered with lime zest. There is a cut-glass purity to the flavours that draws you in. The palate has excellent concentration and is whipped into shape by bracing, tangy grapefruit and lime, which retains its brightness and zing long after the opening, and the gooseberry and herbaceous side of the grape are present and accounted for, but stylishly subdued thanks to the riper fruit profile and the mollifying effects of 8 months of lees ageing. It is a medium-bodied, fiendishly well-balanced wine that cleanses the palate as it slips down and makes you wonder why your glass is already empty. From a single vineyard in the southern foothills of the Wairau Valley, this is a great example of the grape that put New Zealand on the world stage. 13% alc.

Organically/biodynamically farmed.

When to drink it?

A thirst-quenching aperitif for sure, but this is also a great food wine and, I can confirm, matches brilliantly with sashimi, fig and goat’s cheese salad, tuna carpaccio, parma ham and melon and fresh seafood. It was a fairly long lunch… Drink from now until 2027.

The Sunday Times Magazine: “Bursting with lime and gooseberry, this is an excellent New Zealand Sauvignon.”

Customer comments:

“First bottle being drunk. It’s fabulous!” - Mr. D.C.

”Have you got any more?- it's really good!” - Mr. N.F.