John Buck was in Dunedin last week showing his Te Mata wines at Wine Freedom in Water St.
The Te Mata Estate range of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, gamay noir and merlot cabernet are precise, attractive and well balanced with good varietal characters and are well priced at around $20, but it's the named wines that this company is renowned for - Cape Crest sauvignon blanc, Zara viognier, Elston chardonnay, Bullnose syrah and Awatea and Coleraine cabernet merlots.
The Elston chardonnay has always been a favourite of mine for its elegance and restraint, and its ability to develop with five to eight years or more bottle age. The 2011 ($35) has a creamy intensity, stylish but understated oak and a precise balance.
The Bullnose syrah is typically one of the most fragrantly peppery ones from Hawkes Bay and the 2011 ($50) is no exception with its bright intensity and pure fruit. Buck says they pick it so it retains the aromatics. Awatea is one of the most fragrant Hawkes Bay cabernet merlots, the 2011 ($35) is perfumed and has soft ripe fruit and spicy oak with dusty tannins.
Coleraine is a more serious, age-worthy wine and the 2011 ($90) will develop over 10-15 or more years. It's well structured with concentrated but elegant cabernet fruit, and supple tannins. Buck says it has a higher proportion of cabernet sauvignon than in previous vintages because it was such a good year for the variety.
• It's been a busy week with two visits to Marlborough, one for Brancott Estate's launch of its Chosen Rows 2010 sauvignon blanc. Intended to take Marlborough sauvignon blanc to a new level, it is $80 a bottle and there are only 3500 of them, all individually numbered.
Winemaker Patrick Materman and his team have been working on the Icon Project since 2008, to identify not only the finest fruit but also the components in sauvignon that develop with age, eventually choosing a few rows in their Brancott vineyard, the first in Marlborough to be planted with the variety that has made the region so famous.
Most Marlborough sauvignon blanc is made simply and without much intervention, but he said they wanted to take a ''pinot noir'' approach, referring to the close attention pinot noir makers pay to all aspects of production, from site selection to bottling, many of them visiting Burgundy to learn from the French.
However, you never hear of sauvignon blanc winemakers visiting Sancerre or Pouilly Fume, French regions where some of the finest sauvignons are made, he said. He did that last year as well as consulting Prof Denis Dubourdieu, of the University of Bordeaux, a world expert in the variety.
Materman and his team are certainly not the first to take Marlborough sauvignon to another level - others, including Cloudy Bay (with Te Koko), Dog Point (Section 94), Seresin's (Marama), have been producing stylish oak-fermented, wild yeast sauvignon for some years.
However the Brancott Chosen Rows is certainly the most expensive, and judging by the launches last week, to media, to trade and to the public, it is aiming high and won't be made every vintage. The wine originally intended for the 2011 has already been declassified into other labels, like the new Terroir series, available only from the cellar door.
And the wine?
Chosen Rows Sauvignon Blanc 2010 is restrained but harmonious, with hints of grapefruit aromas, apparently sweet fruit, intensity, complexity and balance. It retains some of the vibrant fruit typical of Marlborough, but without the assertiveness, though there's a finely honed acidity and a long aftertaste.
When compared with some acclaimed Sancerre sauvignons, it definitely had the brightness and intensity of Marlborough fruit, but compared with a couple of other leading Marlborough oak-fermented sauvignons, it was restrained and less funky.
Is it worth $80?
Certainly not if you are looking for value for money - you can get very fine sauvignon for less, but if you value rarity or reputation, then it may be.
• Interestingly, the rows from which Brancott Estate's Chosen Rows are harvested are only a short distance from Dog Point's Section 94. The adjoining vineyards are on the floor of Brancott Valley.
The casual visitor to Marlborough sees a sea of vines flooding the flat Wairau Plain and spreading up the side valleys - Waihopai, Omaka, Brancott - but a drive round the 100ha Dog Point vineyard that spreads between the Omaka and Brancott valleys, and over the rolling hills between, revealed many close-planted nooks and crannies, warm north and west-facing slopes with their own little microclimates and soil profiles, although clay loams predominate. It allows many variations of site and character which add to the complexity and interest in the wines. In the gullies and sites not suitable for grapes are olives, pinenuts and native plantings.
Above the vineyard with expansive views is the luxurious Bell Tower Lodge.
James Healy and Ivan Sutherland use fruit from choice sections of the large vineyard for their stylish Dog Point wines (sauvignon blanc, Section 94, chardonnay and pinot noir) and supply grapes to several other producers as well. The fine weather over the past couple of months promises a good vintage in Marlborough, with sunny days and cool nights, and talk is of starting picking the grapes this week.
I attended Dog Point's fifth annual Classic Kiwi Picnic at the weekend, with food by Wellington restaurant Logan Brown - local oysters, whitebait, paua, Kaikoura crayfish and venison ribs, tender and flavoursome with cherry relish, kumara and bacon salad, variously coloured carrots and beans, and cheeses, all matched with Dog Point wines. Attended by around 170 people from all over the country, it was set among some of the vineyard's native plantings.
