2005 Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc

[Skeeter]

One month after harvest, and the 2005 Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc race is underway! (The turnaround from vine to bottle gets shorter every year, huh?)

The first two i've tried have been from my place of part-time employment, of course. I'm such a company stooge. In a good way.

2005 Matua Valley Hawkes Bay SB: The first off the blocks, a week before the Shingle Peak Marlborough SB. Fresh, grassy/gooseberry nose... typical Hawkes Bay nose, really. Not as acidic as the '04's tended to be, with lots of tropical fruit, lime, green apples and even what I could only term as 'nashi pear' characters. Decent finish, with the bite of a fresh green table grape at the end.

Pretty good stuff, considering the bizzare late & long summer/no fall/instant, rainy winter we had this year.


I'll report on the Shingle Peak once I open my taster... sometome this week, or next.

[Bucko]

How do people feel about the harvest in general?

[Skeeter]

Pretty up and down. Most areas will be WAY down on quantity, but hopefully up on quality of the surviving fruit.

Martinborough/Wairarapa got drenched... 8 inches of rain in 24 hours right before harvest. Probably going to be an awful year there, sprinkled with tiny runs of good-quality stuff.

Marlborough looks a lot more promising. Not as big a harvest as '04, but the fruit should be excellent. Hawkes Bay is a wait-and-see year... but most places seem optimistic.

Waiheke Island is claiming '05 as their best vinbtage ever. But as they tend to sell for 50-150 bucks a bottle, I might not be tasting that many of their offerings.

For the rest of the country it' it's mainly "smaller yields with good fruit" in general.

Still, so long as the Marlbourough savvies come out well, our Export market will be happy.

[Bucko]

"Still, so long as the Marlbourough savvies come out well, our Export market will be happy."

I think I am about 20% of that market. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]