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Cloud Kiwi Land
Twenty years ago, a mention of New Zealand would have made you think of lamb or butter. Today it conjures up images of crisp, dry white Sauvignon Blanc wines – from Marlborough in particular, and above all from Cloudy Bay.
In the early seventies, Marlborough didn’t boast a single Sauvignon Blanc vine. Now the region accounts for some of the best Sauvignon Blancs in the world.
Credit must go to the now world-famous Cloudy Bay, whose first vintage came to the UK as recently as 1986. Three years earlier, Australian wine-making entrepreneur David Hohnen had been astonished by his first taste of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. In 1984 he travelled to New Zealand and attended a wine show at which he was able to identify Marlborough as the region responsible for this remarkable wine. The next year he talked his financial backers into buying some land there. One year later, his second release of Cloudy Bay reached the UK and received a rapturous welcome from the media. A legend was born.
Cloudy Bay not only produced stunning wines from their vineyards in the Rapaura and lower Brancott area within the Wairau Valley, but also managed to market their wines worldwide. Every year some 60,000 cases of the Sauvignon are produced, with the UK and Australia receiving the lion’s share.
With a much cooler, more maritime-influenced climate than Australia, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is almost like a caricature of French Loire valley wines like Sancerre, made from the same grape. The soil and climatic conditions combine to produce really mouth-puckering dry whites, with over-the-top gooseberry-like aromas and flavours, and a hint of nettle thrown in. These wines rarely draw indifference – you either love them or hate them.
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