Marlborough – Varying Shades of Lemon-Green.

Fairhall Cliffs Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc / €10.99 / Curious Wines -> Green apple, passionfruit, lemon and grapefruit. Fruity, lively and long. It’s not too far from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc season now, stock up on it here

Marlborough is a large, flat valley where most of the harvesting is done by machine – even for iconic Cloudy Bay. The wine above, which comes from the Wairau Valley subregion, is unusual insofar as the grapes are all hand-harvested due to the very steep incline at which the vines are planted.

These days everyone knows Marlborough but there were no vines there until Montana planted in 1973. Now half of New Zealand’s wines are located there and the brand is a global sensation of sorts.

This sunny region at the top of New Zealand’s South Island is overwhelmingly planted with Sauvignon but there is plenty of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir too (for sparkling and still) as well as a respectable amount of Riesling and Gewurztraminer.

My World Atlas of Wine says that Marlborough Sauvignon “can sometimes seem a rather monotone category”. This is true but at least it tends to be uniformly good, as long as you enjoy that zingy style.

p.s. *Maria Madigan is running wine tours from Ireland to Bordeaux a few times over the coming months. May 21st-24th / Apr 23-6 / Sept 17th-20th. She organises trips to other wine regions too. See here for further details.

p.p.s. *See also Le Package. Sarah Wright, an Irish expat living in Bordeaux, is helping to run this Saint Emilion Wine School.