The results

There was plenty of lively, crunchy fruit in evidence to keep palates refreshed, along with engaging styles and high scores from beyond Marlborough, reports Tina Gellie

MARLBOROUGH SAUVIGNON blanc asserted its superiority in this tasting, and sparked debate among our experts about whether sub-regionality was a benefit, and how other regions could compete.

bob campbell MW said Marlborough had built its name on its distinctive ‘brand’ to the point where ‘new Zealand Sauvignon blanc means ‘Marlborough Sauvignon blanc’. its dominant position has impacted the rest of the country too, making it hard for wine lovers to judge other regional styles on their own merits without comparing them to Marlborough.

Speaking as a merchant, Mel brown said it was very hard to highlight regionality to consumers in the uK, where the concept of differing styles was less evident to those used to drinking brand new Zealand/Marlborough.

campbell said the strength of the ‘Marlborough mothership’ was uniformity of style. ‘When Mrs Shopper goes to the supermarket and takes any Marlborough Sauvignon off the shelf, she’s got a pretty good idea of what it will deliver, and most of the time it will. The risk of branching into sub-regional styles in Marlborough is you move away from that uniformity.

‘it’s important to keep your loyal customers who want brand Marlborough, but you also need to engage your Decanter readers who understand and like variation and experimentation, and that’s what sub-regionality does.’

he said there was a danger that Marlborough Sauvignon could be seen as an ‘industrial product’, but that sub-regional and vintage variation plus individual winemaker style ‘made things more interesting’.

cameron Douglas MS said because Marlborough was such a strong category, it was understandable its winemakers wouldn’t want to make radical changes to a winning formula. ‘Some wines we tasted showed you could push the boundaries a little bit, but not too much.

Power and pungency have to ring true, but if you’re going to use wild ferments, skin contact, oak and lees work, fine, make sure there’s balance.’

Marlborough was responsible for 61 of the 93 wines submitted to the tasting, and brown said that regardless of the numbers it ‘outshone’ every other region. ‘it was exciting to see the quality is still there, which is ultimately what a lot of people question: whether Marlborough can retain that strength and reputation.’

She felt the ‘traditional, pure, vibrant style of wine’ garnered most of the highest scores, ‘which speaks volumes for the industry’, proving ‘it is not just quantity that is being produced’. her big criticism for wines that deviated from the norm was when producers did not indicate on the label if they were barrel fermented or oak aged, which would help adventurous consumers while also avoiding surprises for traditional drinkers.

looking at the other regions, Douglas said Wairarapa and particularly Martinborough ‘showed a strong voice’, while both hawke’s bay and central otago were under-represented but had some ‘great wines to discover’. brown felt the nelson wines lacked vibrancy and those from north canterbury ‘did not have the acidity and authentic nature i’d hoped for’.

our experts said new Zealand Sauvignon blanc had the ability to age very well – even though that might not have been expressed in this tasting, with most wines from 2016 and 2015 – and said they would happily cellar wines for between six and 10 years from the vintage.

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest- release NZ Sauvignon Blanc wines priced £ 12.99 or over, one wine only per producer

‘Exciting to see the Marlborough quality is still there, which is what a lot of people question’ Melanie Brown