Luna Estate Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023

Description

Dry, Lime, Nectarine

Clear, bright pale gold with a shimmering green fleck. Super charged, classic Luna Sauvignon Blanc! Loads of stonefruit, lemon and lime and delicate floral notes. I find this wine so fresh and "cool" smelling and really enjoy the energising almost electric feel, really makes the mouth water! Palate totally delivers on the mouthwatering thing! Really delicious and vibrant flavours with a seamless, rich texture. Loads of juicy, punchy personality. Quite a mouthful. Fun wine!

A blend of two very different blocks growing on our Blue Rock vineyard. One block is planted in a very rocky soil the other in a heavier silty clay loam. The block on the rockier soil tends to ripen earlier and more fully, generally showing riper fruit in a more typical spectrum whilst the other block on the heavier soils tends to exhibit greener, citrus notes.

Vintage 2023 delivered high quality with excellent, ripe phenolics and wonderful acid balance. Blocks were harvested together and destemmed/crushed into the press for a nice long maceration on skins. At the very beginning of the press cycle a portion of free run juice was sent to a temperature controlled stainless steel tank for along cool ferment. Following lees contact for around 6 months the two batches were combined for a gentle filtration prior to spine bottling.

There is a saying in the wine industry - "There are now bad vintages, just the off challending one". Vintage 2023 here in Martinborough would certainly fit into the challending category. The now infamous triple dip La Nina certainly lived up to the hype. Persistent rainfall and high temperatures are not conditions that favour grape farmers. It took all of our collective skill and hard work to pull the crop through.

Winemaking can be a tough trade and unlike beer or gin makers we only get one shot each year to create our product, and it's all about the quality of the fruit! If mother nature does not abide then tough luck, you gotta work with what you get.

Upon reflection, vintage 2023, whilst very challenging and far from "classic", was actually very succesful, for us at least. Certainly a tale of two vineyards; our Blue Rock vineyard performed extremely well and quality was outstanding. Less so our Eclipse vineyard, although the5re were some excellent pockets, particularly Chardonnay. The biggest take home for me personally was the excellent, never say die attitude of our team. We rallied hard, we doubled down and we never gave up! It is true that adversity builds strength and resilience. Making awesome wine frok the tougher seasons is what this job is all about! Bring on the next vintage.

Food Pairing: A salad featuring a pungent goat cheese and nice, ripe tomato with basil would be excellent!