Mahi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2024

Description

Cream, Dry, Oak

This wine shows an array of fruit characters, ranging from citrus through to tropical notes. This is complemented by some secondary characters from the natural yeast ferments and some barrel aging. The palate has an elegant structure with a creamy, textural mid-palate and a long finish.

Mahi, meaning ‘our work, our craft’, began in 2001, fulfilling a dream of ours. After 15 vintages it was time to do our own thing. With a strong focus on single-vineyard wines, and now backed up by a series of premium regional wines from Marlborough, the idea behind Mahi is to respect and promote the individuality of the various vineyards. The Mahi symbol represents the strength, life, and growth of the native New Zealand frond (fern), with the understanding that wine should never be rushed to bottle, respecting its ability to evolve naturally over time.

This year, our 24th, was again distinctive and was our earliest finish ever. It always seems that winemakers are raving about the latest vintage, but I know that I can quite comfortably say that this vintage looks like it will be in the top five that I have ever worked. The fruit was possibly the cleanest we have every seen, the crops were small, the rainfall low and the flavours ripe. We had a cool snap early-mid December, which is when we were flowering, then an amazing period through the rest of December and January, before ‘normal’ temperatures in February and a cooler March. Because of the coolness over flowering, we ended up with low pollination, and low crops, which ripened well through that warm period but also retained the acidity and freshness as February and March were not super-hot. A stunner, and so easy to work!

The focus with this wine is to provide a drink that has texture and depth, rather than focussing solely on primary fruit notes. We want a wine that satisfies across the palate and employ a number of techniques to achieve this. Our Sauvignon this year comes from six different vineyards, all of them giving particular attributes to the final wine. The hand-picked fruit was whole cluster pressed so that the time on skins was minimised. A portion of this juice, 7% this year, was barrel fermented in seasoned French barriques to give greater weight, though ensuring that wood is not evident on the nose. The balance of the wine was fermented cool to retain the fruit characters from our vineyards. The native ferment portion, 19%, also adds levels of flavour and texture, giving a savoury note that balances some sweeter fruit. The final blend, including 2.45% Semillon for length, was made solely from free-run juice, as we feel it gives a more elegant and subtle wine, a key for us.