The single vineyard range represents the top of Matua’s range of wines, and intends to satisfy the growing appetite of consumers for genuine provenance and pure expression of ‘terroir’. The Awatere Valley is a sub-zone of the wider Marlborough region of New Zealand, with a slightly cooler climate, particularly suited to the production of fragrant, often grassy Sauvignon Blancs.
The fruit for this wine was machine harvested and tank fermented. This wine was awarded a Gold Medal at the 2014 New Zealand International Wine Show.
Appearance: Light lemon-green colour. Quite pale really, but looks crisp and shiny.
The nose is hyper expressive, with a lively lime aroma shining through. Also well present are notes of pear, fresh passion fruit, acidic pineapple, and slight asparagus.
Palate has a pronounced yet enjoyable acidity, softened by a medium body and slight oily texture. The wine holds well in the mouth while it lives literally frantically on your palate thanks to the acidity. Flavours on the palate are here again very intense. The zesty pear and the estery lime race each other wildly on the attack, only to let the spices, good grassiness and asparagus take over on the middle palate and the finish. The wine is super long, finishing on asparagus, freshly cut acacia, grass and passion fruit.
Overall, an excellent wine. A fantastic expression of the Awatere valley, plenty of minerality, acidity and limy zesty life together with the right amount of texture and body for a good balance. Typical Marlborough, yet without exaggerated grassiness or reductive characters. A remarkable flavour intensity and length make for a very good wine. Definitely worth tasting, for its freshness and vibrancy.
This was the first 2014 wine I tasted, a promising first.
For background info about the producer, see Matua’s profile page
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