Beautiful Marlborough, located at the top of the South Island, anyone who has been to Marlborough can appreciate it's beauty and hopefully you've enjoyed on of their long warm summer days that are perfect for grape ripening!
Marlborough is New Zealand's largest wine region at over twenty thousand hectares of grapes, though small Marlborough is mighty! The region accounts for approximately 2/3 of New Zealand’s wine production, a huge proportion of this goes overseas and to be honest it seems like they can grow almost anything in Marlborough. The two things that Marlborough mostly produces mostly are New Zealand's international wine signature - Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc & also Sparkling Wine, it has to be said too that I am a massive fan of Marlborough Pinot Noir which is really starting to rival Central Otago & Martinborough in popularity because of its fruit forward style and easy drinkability. Also if you're a wine collector it has the complexity needed to age well.
So that's what I've picked! See my celebrations of Marlborough below..
You just cannot talk Marlborough without mentioning a zesty Sauv & this Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2016 is everything that good Marlborough Sauv should be, Dry but acidic with delicious juicy zesty citrus bouncing around your mouth. All that and it's organic too (I know!) and available widely for an astonishingly reasonable $18. You just can't go wrong!
When it comes to eternal favourites - Nautilus's Cuvee Brut Methode Traditionelle NV is just so. This pinot noir/chardonnay Sparkling has been produced since 1989 at a consistently high quality and continually wins award after award. It nails the fact that the key to success in a great NV is consistency. Toasty and biscuity as any good bubbles should be and it is flush with aromas of peaches and citrus. In a word. Yum.....available for $37 at either supermarkets or Liquor stores nationwide.
My obsession with finding the best boutique wineries in New Zealand continues and Blank Canvas are completely rocking my wine world. This 2014 Marlborough Pinot Noir is so fruity with delicious red fruit aromas, the tannins are so silky and all in all the word I would use to best describe this wine (apart from delicious) is balanced, and as far as I'm concerned a well-balanced wine, is a great wine. This wine is $45 and worth every penny. Winemakers Matt & Sophie have just returned from Europe where they did the 2017 harvest. Matt himself has done back to back, Northen and Southern Hemisphere harvests for 25 consecutive years! He has yet to miss a harvest in that time which means in 25 years, he has done fifty - yes that's right - FIFTY harvests. Matt believes the only way to improve your wine is to learn from other people & step outside your own world and where better to learn than in the Old World and bring those influences back to his making of his own Blank Canvas New World wines.
Click the link below to hear my chat with Carly Flynn on the RadioLIVE Long Lunch