The Sauvignon Blanc juggernaut ‘cannot be stopped’

The ‘juggernaut’ of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc success is set to continue unabated as new consumers ‘come up through the ranks’, according to Hugh Crichton, winemaker at Hawke’s Bay’s Vidal Estate.

Winemaker Hugh Crichton believes demand for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc will continue at its high rate for the foreseeable future (Photo: Vidal Estate)

Speaking to db as he unveiled Vidal’s 2016 Estate Sauvignon Blanc in the UK, the winemaker said that so long as producers maintained their commitment to quality and yield control, consumers demand would continue to at its current high level.

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is one of the biggest wine industry success stories of modern times. While some commentators have pointed to an ‘end-game’ for plantings of the grape in the region and others suggest that the region is entering its ‘mid-life crisis’ (Matt Kramer) with much self-questioning now entering winemakers’ consciousnesses, it continues to enjoy almost unrivalled popularity worldwide.

Since the first Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted in Marlborough in 1973 at Montana (now Brancott Estate), the region now accounts for 24,020ha of New Zealand’s total 36,192ha of vineyard plantings, according to New Zealand Winegrowers.

“It’s like a juggernaut,” Crichton said. “People love it – it really seems to hit a sweet spot with consumers. A lot of producers are scratching their heads and thinking why is it so successful, why does it just keep growing and growing, and there are a lot of cynics in the industry who are saying, oh it’s going to crash. I actually don’t think it will.

“Ultimately it comes down to the flavour of what’s in the glass, and consumers love it. And sure, consumers move on and tastes change, but there are always new consumers coming up through the ranks and it just offers so much flavour and refreshment that it’s a great wine to introduce new consumers to.”

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Introducing Vidal’s Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2015, newly released in the UK, Crichton also said that the aim in producing the wine was that was both powerful and restrained.

“It comes down to elegance, restraint, wine that’s better with food,” he said.

“‘Restrained’ can be misused and misunderstood. There are some wines where people say ‘elegant’ and ‘restrained’ but actually they’re just flavourless – that’s probably as a result of overcropping in the vineyard so there’s no there’s no concentration – you have a sip and the flavour’s gone within a few seconds.

“That’s the biggest challenge in winemaking, I reckon, is to have wines that have power and restraint. So you want the concentration of flavour, but you don’t want it to be presented in such a way that it’s not smacking you around the head.”

Crichton explained that Vidal’s Estate Sauvignon Blanc was made from grapes from the two main valleys of Marlborough – Wairau and Awatere, though mainly from the Wairau, where the fruit shows more “lifted tropical aromatics” than the methoxypyrazine-associated “green bean, capsicum, grassy” notes in Awatere.

“Within Marlborough you get this one extreme of the herbaceous, acidic, mineral, tight wine right through to the really super-charged tropical, and often you don’t have anything in between, but I actually think that a lot of consumers at this sort of level are looking for something that has more tropicalness to it, but importantly still has really good acidity.”

The fruit for Vidal’s Estate Sauvignon Blanc was gently pressed and the juice cool-fermented to retain as much flavour and aroma as possible. Lees ageing of some components prior to bottling has developed mid-palate weight adding to the wine’s intense fruit profile. The wine was bottled in July 2016.

The Vidal Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2016 launched in October in the UK with an RRP of £12.15.

A New Zealand pioneer

One of New Zealand’s most historic estates, Vidal was set up by Anthony Joseph Vidal, who travelled to New Zealand in 1888 to help his uncle, José Sole (later anglicised to Joseph Soler), who was one of the pioneers of winemaking in New Zealand.

Jospeh Soler ended up making wine in Wanganui – one of the wettest places in the country. Vidal discovered that Hawke’s Bay was more suitable to viticulture, eventually setting up the Vidal winery in 1905.

The estate stayed under Vidal ownership until 1976, when it was purchased by Sir George Fistonich – though, crucially, it remains an independently run operation.

Hawke’s Bay is one of the oldest wine regions in New Zealand. Along with Mission, Church Road and Ta Mata, Vidal is part of the winemaking heritage of the region.

The estate produces Sauvignon Blancs in the Estate and Reserve ranges of its three-tier quality system, which also contains the ‘grand cru’ Legacy range.