Viticulture

The year 2003 was the fourth vintage produced from the Staete Landt Vineyard in Marlborough’s Rapaura region. The early part of the growing season was rather cold and a little wetter than the very dry winter we had experienced. The cold spring led to a number of unusually severe frosts which in turn led to poor flowering and consequently light fruit set. This light fruit set led to a very low yield of fruit per vine but ultimately to very intensely flavoured berries The final two and half months prior to harvest were ideal: warm and dry during the day and cool and dry at night. This produced very clean aromatic fruit with zingy acidity and optimum ripeness.

The Staete Landt Vineyard Sauvignon is planted in 6 different blocks. We pick the different blocks separately as soon as they reached ripeness to give us different component wines. These components gave us a spread of wines with different structures and flavours. The first picks were to retain the intensity and vivacity of aroma and that zingy acidity that is the hallmark of good Sauvignon. The later picks were to provide the weight and tropical fruit concentration that we aim for in our Sauvignon Blanc.

Harvest Dates: 2nd April - 5th April
Brix: 22.5 - 23.5

Winemaking

Each picking was treated slightly differently in the winery. The majority of the grapes were machine harvested and fermented using neutral yeast so that the fruit flavours and aromas were emphasised. This wine was racked immediately after ferment.
Two other portions were hand picked and whole bunch pressed to retain delicacy and elegance. The first portion aged in a tank on its lees thus allowing a subtle but complex delicate wine to develop.
The second hand picked portion (about 10% of the wine) was fermented in eight year old French oak barrels and was aged for a further 3 months on its lees. This resulted in more complexity to the wine and minimal oak flavour due to the age of the barrels.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol: 13.4 %; Acidity: 6.9 g/l; pH: 3.15; Sugar: 2g/l

Tasting Note

A complex and intensely aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is perfumed with aromas of passion fruit, papaya and rock melon. In the mouth the wine is dry but full bodied with real concentration of flavour and aroma, a passion fruit character is dominant but this is backed by subtle dry grass like flavours with creamy and almost nutty complexity and a crisp but very long finish.
This is a wine for drinking whilst young but has the substance and concentration to develop well over two to five years once the primary fruit aromas have mellowed out to honey comb characters.