Mahi Single Vineyard The Alias Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Description

Dry, Oak, Passionfruit

The influence of wild yeast, vineyard site, barrel-ferment and time on lees makes for a rich and textural style of Sauvignon Blanc. Fifteen months in French barriques has given this wine a well-rounded textural palate while still retaining freshness at the back of the palate.

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.

The 2019 vintage proved to be our earliest finish ever, which also fits in with our earliest start by five days, starting on March 7th. Strangely enough, although it was our earliest vintage it was definitely not our warmest. I personally believe, however, that I will remember this harvest as one of our best, with excellent fruit quality and ideal weather conditions. This vintage can be defined by a number of characteristics, starting with lower rainfall. From Christmas Day until the end of harvest and overall, we received only 75% of our normal rain through the entire growing period. We also saw smaller berries, especially in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also in Sauvignon. Pinot was hit very hard, and we were down nearly 50% but also the Sauvignon berries were about 30% smaller than last year. With no rain there was hardly any Botrytis inoculum around and the fruit was the cleanest we have seen in a number of years. This was also helped by the warmer days, especially since the start of January where the deviation from average growing degree days really kicked in.

The fruit for this wine comes from a small parcel in the Byrne vineyard, located in the Conder’s Bend area of Marlborough. The vines are managed organically and are planted on gravels that would have once been a riverbed. The stony soils provide both drainage and heat retention which are essential for this cooler site. The grapes were hand-picked, whole-cluster pressed and taken straight to French barriques without any chemical additions. It was fermented with indigenous yeast in the barrels, helping to add complexity and texture, without dominating the nose. The wine was left on yeast lees for fifteen months, which were stirred regularly. This meant that the yeast added both savoury notes and served to work as a natural fining agent. After time in barrique it was gently racked then bottled without fining.