Villa Maria Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Winery
Villa Maria
A family owned New Zealand winery founded in 1961 by its current owner and Managing Director, George Fistonich. Realising that it takes more than just good winemaking to produce quality, the passion to succeed begins in the vineyard. Astute site selection by their vineyard experts, is followed by superior vineyard management and then complemented by expert winemaking. A strong focus on continually improving the vineyards is considered to be an incredibly important factor in quality winemaking. They own vineyards and sources grapes from contract growers from some of the best sites in three of New Zealand's leading grape growing regions; Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne. Villa Maria also has 20 hectares of vines at the Auckland Winery site.
Vineyard : Somewhere
Marlborough
Marlborough is New Zealand's largest and most successful wine producing area renowned for the production of exuberantly fruity Sauvignon Blanc and intensely aromatic wines. Marlborough’s greatest assets are high sunshine hours, dry autumn weather, cool nights and free-draining soils containing stones, which absorb heat and reflect sunshine. Much of the valley would be unable to support a viable wine industry without irrigation. Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough has stunned the Old World with its startling, tangy intensity and this was the style that first brought the region’s fame worldwide. Chardonnay isn’t far behind, although there is still a tendency for winemakers to blur delicious tangy white peach and citrus flavours with an excess of oak to give an occasionally resinous result. Riesling is one of Marlborough’s star wines. Occasionally dry but mostly off-dry, Marlborough Riesling offers delicious lime/citrus flavours with a seductive suggestion of honey and tropical fruit in years when botrytis affects the crop. People thought the cool conditions in Marlborough were tailor-made for Pinot Noir but it has been a slow starter, possibly because it has been a victim of over-cropping. Cabernet Sauvignon struggles to ripen and has pronounced herbal characteristics as a result, but Merlot, in warmer years, can produce surprisingly good red.
