Mt Beautiful North Canterbury Sauvignon Blanc 2017

Description

Dry

By highlighting floral aromatics and tropical flavors such as guava and melon-like fruit, Mt Beautiful tone down the grassiness and bring a creamy mid-palate all the way through to a fresh and bright crispness on the finish. Mt Beautiful have set a new precedent for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

2017 was a challenging vintage for Sauvignon Blanc. Although the region had a good flowering, rain leading up to harvest put us under potential disease pressure. As a result, some fruit was picked earlier than normal. Through selective harvesting and attentive winemaking, the winemakers managed to produce some very good batches. 2017 saw their first hand pick of Sauvignon Blanc which resulted in very good fruit concentration and palate weight. A small portion (2.5%) went to barrel and the remainder went into stainless steel tanks to ferment. A number of yeast strains were used which helped diversify the flavor profile. The wine spent eight months aging on lees, giving it a great creamy texture. It was then blended and bottled on January 31, 2018.

The majority of the Sauvignon Blanc is planted on the most northern part of the vineyard which is cooler and more suited to this variety. All of the Mt Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc is hand-thinned and machine harvested before it is pressed into juice on site. The planted clones are a mix of University of California Davis (UCD) 1 and Mass selection (MS) on a mix of 101-14, 3309 and Schwarzmann rootstock, with a quarter of the vines Bordeaux clones BDX 316 and BDX 317, on Riparia Gloire rootstock. The Bordeaux clones tend to give a definite lift to Sauvignon Blanc flavors, with less cut grass and more tropical flavors providing a more artisan style, balanced, elegant wine which compliments a range of foods.

Food Pairing: Pair Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc with arugula and feta salad, pasta carbonara or freshly shucked oysters on a sunny day.