A GLOBAL HIT FROM FORTY VINEYARDS

ENJOY simply with garlicky prawns and warm crusty baguettes.

David Ellis

NEW ZEALAND’s Giesen Wines used fruit from no less than forty vineyards to create one of their best-ever Sauvignon Blancs, a wine that’s already hitting the tables of Sauvignon Blanc buffs across the globe from Australia to the UK and China.

And while broadly referred to as Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, the forty vineyards that provided fruit for this wine were in fact all concentrated in just one area, the Wairau Valley. Winemaker Andrew Blake says such a broad vineyard input enabled his team to create a wine with a multi-dimensional aroma and flavour spectrum, ranging from vibrant and tropical, to elegant, crisp and green.

“This is a truly Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc,” Andrew says. “Grapefruit and gooseberry characters mix with tomato and blackcurrant leaf on the nose, leading to a vibrant and fruit weighted palate, all balanced by a clean and crisp acidity.”

But how do you decide on a final blend when the fruit comes from so many different vineyards? “We fermented the juice from each in cool temperatures using a range of aromatic and complex yeast strains,” Andrew says. “Then the team evaluated the quality of the individual tanks and decided on the final blends and bottling.”

FIRST-EVER “A” grade organic Chardonnay from this respected McLaren Vale maker.

Pay $14.99 and put on the Sunday lunch table with simply a bowl of garlicky prawns and a couple of warm crusty baguettes.

ONE TO NOTE: KANGARILLA Road at McLaren Vale in the Adelaide Hills has released its first-ever “A” grade certified organic Chardonnay, a wine that’s been four years in the making because of the lengthy processes involved in organic certification.

This first was made from fruit from the bumper 2012 vintage on the Edgehill vineyard, and which for the first time had been reserved solely for organic wine; maker Kevin O’Brien says he wanted to create a wine that championed McLaren Vale and the exceptional Chardonnay varietal characteristics organic and bio-dynamically grown grapes can exhibit. Well worth the $22 price tag to enjoy with barbecued chicken and garlic mash.

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