Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc 2021

Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc is a pale straw colour with hints of green and gold. Complex and elegant bouquet of pineapple, guava and meadow grass. The dry and low- to medium-bodied palate has a round texture and compelling creaminess. Grapefruit and lemon citrus with a good dose of sweet pineapple, ripe peach and chalky minerality.

100% Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes come entirely from the certified-organic Woolshed vineyard on Loveblock Farm, in the Lower Dashwood sub-region of Marlborough’s Awatere Valley. The soil type is predominately alluvial loams containing some silt loam over stone. No sulphur or ascorbic acid in the vineyard as per organic winemaking practices.
Machine (65%) and hand (35%) harvesting of the grapes in the cool Marlborough morning. The fruit for this wine went though batch production in small amounts with soil variation within the vineyard determining the batch size. Fermentation of the handpicked grapes separately in alternate vessels – a concrete egg, two amphorae and neutral old French oak barrels – on wild yeast. The concrete egg and amphorae portions were pressed and settled for a few hours, then racked to vessel where primary and secondary fermentation occurred spontaneously. The barrel portion went straight from press to barrel where it fermented on wild yeast and underwent malolactic fermentation. The machine harvested portion went straight to stainless tanks from press where 25 percent underwent full malolactic fermentation to reduce acidity. Post fermentation, only the best parcels were selected for the final Loveblock blend.
Ageing potential: Drink now through 2025.

13.5%
How about a Marlborough Red? Check out Satellite Marlborough Pinot Noir 2018.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

– 4 STARS
- 89 POINTS
 Organic, this is given a painstaking vinification: different portions fermented in a concrete egg, amphorae, and neutral old French oak barrels, all with wild yeast. Little bit of a deeper colour here, and a very different nose from those made with commercial yeasts. It's a tiny bit reductive/flinty, salt and apple rather than anything green or tropical. In the mouth the texture is an obvious difference too, more creaminess, some oatmeal and nutty apple. There is sweetness here (almost 7g/l of sugar) which frankly I could do without, but it has a tangy, sour lemon finish and that does work quite well so the final impression is the citrus character in a more complex take on Marlborough SB. A point or two off for being just too sweet.