Marlborough

Lovely light bodied Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough's Whitehaven winery, which produces the incredibly good value for money Mansion House Bay range of wines as a little sibling to its main brand. 

This is a light and dry Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand's biggest wine region and its flavours are fresh, crisp and taste of green apple and pear with a lingering finish. This is very good value for money.

Darling in name and in taste, this Marlborough Pinot Gris is made from certified organic grapes grown in Rapaura in Marlborough.

It's light bodied, off dry and tastes of fresh pears and white peach, offering a lovely easy white wine for newcomers to wine and for those who enjoy soft, smooth styles. 

This compact and convenient little half bottle contains Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, one of New Zealand's great classic dry whites. 

Winemaker Simon Waghorn brings grapes together from three sub regions of Marlborough to make this dry, full bodied style of Sauvignon Blanc. Vineyards in the Wairau Valley, Awatere Valley and Kekerengu Coast (the most southern of Marlborough's vineyards) all combine to make this succulent dry wine with its ripe flavours of tropical fruit balanced by green notes. 

All grapes are machine harvested at night or in the cool parts of the day to preserve the purity and intensity of flavours. WInemaker Simon Waghorn blends to suit what he thinks is Astrolabe?s style, which reflects what he has learnt as a winemaker and drinker over the years. This means he aims to create a Sauvignon that tastes dry, expressive and elegantly balanced with flavours of passionfruit, blackcurrant leaf and gooseberry. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Fromm Winery produces low alcohol wines similar to German Rieslings from the Mosel/Saar/Ruwer region. These sweet wines have an amazing balance between acid and sugar. While they have high residual sugar, they never seem cloyingly sweet, and have alcohols as low as 7-8%.

This German style Marlborough Riesling offers bright green apple, citrus and mineral notes. The texture is oily and rich, with juicy, bright acidity bringing balance.

Evocatively named after the two rivers running through Marlborough; the Wairau and the Awatere, whose banks are flanked with grapes, including those that made their way into this dry pinkie with its fresh summer berry flavours and lingering finish... Marlborough winemaker Dave Clouston spent three years making wine on the French island of Corsica, where dry light bodied, flavoursome rose is the order of the day in the Mediterranean heat.

This is his Marlborough take on the same theme, only it's made 100% from this country's most planted red grape, Pinot Noir. It's a dry light bodied, super fresh rose to drink year round. 

Convergence is made from grapes sourced from five different vineyards in the Marlborough region. Each region offers its own flavour profile and unique character. 

This Sauvignon Blanc offers fennel, fresh herb and tomato leaf aromas with subtle notes of passionfruit and nettle. Dry and salty to taste, persistent flavours of zesty citrus and Greengage plum are revealed alongside bright, crunchy acidity. The flinty yet lively palate has a lovely creamy texture and a long smooth finish.

Fabulous Pinot Noir with amazing depth of flavour especially at this price; a wine that really puts Marlborough's best foot forward thanks to winemaker Rebecca Salmond, who sources grapes from the region's Southern Valleys. Flavours are of ripe cherry, blackberry and spice lead into a lovely, elegant yet weighty palate with superb fruit ripeness and intensity. This wine will continue to age for two years plus and pairs well with lighter red meat dishes.

Riesling is the greatest lower alcohol wine because it has more flavour than most grape varieties which lends itself to higher intensity of taste, balanced by naturally high acidity for freshness. Flavours here span the gamut of freshly picked apples, lemon sherbert and crisp lime juice in a refreshing, lower alcohol Riesling with its 9% ABV. This wine has a beautiful balance of flavour, natural acidity and great length with a long finish. This wine is a great way of enjoying a glass or two, without feeling the same impact of the same amount of wine with more typical alcohol levels of over 12% ABV.

The aim of the game here was to create a lower alcohol wine naturally without doctoring it, if you'll excuse the pun, by removing alcohol. The Riesling grapes in The Doctors' Riesling were fermented to a medium sweet level so that natural grape sugar is retained and the alcohol remains lower than usual. 

Winemakers John and Beth Forrest (a father-daughter team) strike an excellent balance between fruity sweetness and bright acidity in this tasty wine.

The Charles Wiffen Pinot Gris, is grown in the ?Home? Block, which surrounds the Homestead on the farm, which was built in 1882. The block is spur pruned, with a targeted yield of 9 tonnes to the hectare. The grapes are machine harvested in the cool of the morning, transported to the winery, where it is gently destemmed, pressed and clarified. The juice is then fermented with selected yeasts, with the fermentation stopped at the desired residual sugar content.

This estate grown Pinot Gris exhibits aromas of beurre bose pear, hazelnut and white lily with hints of meyer lemon and rosewater on the palate and is refreshingly textured.

RS 5.5 g/L

This wine is great value for money from winemaker Simon Waghorn, who says Chardonnay is his first love in wine. He makes this creamy, dry and citrusy version from four different clones of Chardonnay, all grown on his family's home block vineyard. 

All grapes were hand picked, whole cluster pressed fermented with wild yeasts in barrel followed by lees aging in French oak with battonage (stirring of the lees). The result is a full bodied wine offering impressive depth and layers of stonefruit and citrusy flavours at a relatively modest price. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Charles Wiffen Chardonnay is a fruity, medium bodied dry white offering flavours of lemon, grapefruit and white peach, given depth by creamy richness and balanced acidity.

It's a top buy at this price and a super tasty wine for everyday enjoyment. 

This is a light, dry and fresh Pinot Gris with flavours of white fruit and a lingering finish. Good value. 

This Blanc de Blancs is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes and is aged on lees for at least two years prior to disgorgement, which gives it a rich, full and creamy flavour combined with the freshness of aging wine on tirage (yeast lees following fermentation) in the bottle.

Number 1 Family Estate is owned by Daniel and Adele Le Brun who are the first to have made traditional method sparkling wine in New Zealand, bringing their experience in France to the early days of this country's modern wine industry. They celebrated 40 years of pioneering methode traditionelle in Marlborough in 2020. Le Brun comes from a long line French sparkling wine makers with family history in the Champagne region dating back to 1684. He has had a profound impact on the style and quality of New Zealand bubbles.

#N/A

#N/A