Viticulture

Viticulture
The year 2000 was the first vintage produced from the Staete Landt vineyard in Marlborough’s Rapaura area. Young vines, particularly young Sauvignon Blanc often produce amazingly fruity aromatically intense wines and this Staete Landt Sauvignon Blanc is no exception to that rule. The reason for this exceptional first crop is that the amount of fruit per vine is very low and therefore concentrated. Whilst the vines are still small the number of shoots and amount of leaves are limited this ensures good exposure of the bunches to the sun and consequently the accumulation of ripe aromas

The season itself started slowly with a cold wet spring and early summer. This allowed slow ripening of the grapes and the result has been a wine that has retained intense aromas and racy acidity. The cool early part of summer turned into along hot and dry spell just when needed at the end of February right through to harvest in April. This period is really important to gain ripe flavours and accumulate alcohol.

The Staete Landt vineyard Sauvignon is planted in a number of different blocks and these were all harvested separately as they reached their optimum ripeness.

Harvest Dates: 4th– 13th April 2000
Brix: 22.5- 23.7

Winemaking

There were four separate portions picked at different times each was treated slightly differently in the winery. The majority of the grapes were machine harvested and fermented at allow temperature over a two week period using a neutral yeast that does not detract from the fruit flavours and aromas. These wines were racked immediately after ferment. One portion was fermented and left on its fermentation lees for three months prior to blending. This produced a wine with more fatness and textural complexity than the simple fruit driven wines.

A further component, amounting to about 10% of the wine, came from the ripest part of the vineyard. This was hand picked and whole bunch pressed and then fermented in three and four year old French oak barrels, apart of this was allowed to go through a Malo lactic fermentation then aged on lees for three months prior to blending.

The wines were blended in early August prior to a light fining and polishing before bottling.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol: 13.7%; Acidity: 7.5 g/l; pH: 3.33; Sugar: 2g/l

Tasting Note

An ebullient first crop sauvignon that shows intense racy aromatics of ripe melon and passion fruit. It has a full smooth texture and complex palate with crisp acidity and a lingering finish. This is a wine that is very appealing whilst young but will last up to five years following the vintage.