You couldn’t exactly describe Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon as New Zealand’s most unconventional white, but it is highly unusual because it evolves in the bottle, stays fresh for over a decade and never develops an undesirable green pea, asparagus and methoxypyrazine derived taste.
Winery founder Ivan Donaldson’s oldest son, Mat, now leads the charge in the winery with fellow winemakers Pete Bartle and Matt Rose but they have picked up where Ivan left off, using the same recipe, namely 70 percent Sauvignon Blanc and 30 percent Semillon. And it’s the latter that is key to the wine’s ageability, suggests Ivan.
“Thiols in Sauvignon Blanc tend to slump after a year and they’ve basically left the building after two to three years, which is why so many Sauvignons evolve canned pea-like flavours in this time. As Semillon ages, it has this toasty component that balances the methoxypyrazines,” says Ivan, whose aim was always to make wine that could cellar and show Sauvignon in another light.
The first vintage, 1991, was a Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and was barrel fermented, so it fitted the bill as an intentionally different style to other Sauvignons on the market. As more Sauvignon Blanc grapes became available, the Donaldson family reversed the trend and Sauvignon Blanc has played the lead role ever since the mid ‘90s, with Semillon in the support role. This wine makes up a relatively small percent of Pegasus Bay Winery’s overall production but has a strong following in the restaurant trade and in retail.
It’s the aging potential and ability to shine a different light on Sauvignon Blanc that also inspired Marlborough winemakers James Healy and Ivan Sutherland to make their fully barrel fermented Section 94, which is 100 percent Sauvignon Blanc. The first vintage of Section 94 was 2002 and the current is 2014.
This wine was inspired by the vineyard, fruit from which is fully hand harvested at 7.5 to 8 tonnes to the hectare compared to the district norm of, say, 10 to 12 tonnes. These are the key points of difference, but not the only ones.
The green taste of Sauvignon Blanc is deaccentuated through the use of unconventionally warmer fermentation temperatures, wild yeasts and gentle handling of grapes. Malolactic fermentation was never on the table.
“The only thing we’ve played around with over the years is the pressing; we’re probably better at it now and all we’re looking for there is the structure of the wine and how it looks two or three years down the track – using gentle handling,” Sutherland says.
About 3,500 to 4,000 cases of Section 94 are made each year and this may increase now that a little Chardonnay has been removed from one end of the Section 94 vineyard.
That slice of land lay fallow for a year and was replanted last winter with Sauvignon Blanc.
“The idea is to look at those new vines and feel our way with the grapes. We may not use them straight away. We want to see what they’re like before we use them – we’ve realised that being in a hurry with stuff is not always a solution,” says Sutherland.
Healy suggests that most Sauvignon Blanc makers tend to produce wines with primary fruit as their main focus whereas he describes Section 94 as a departure from that; “It’s not about fruit and we make no excuse for that.”
Sutherland agrees: “We know if we serve the two Sauvignons we make, we can divide a room. We were never chasing a malolactic character and the pressing of Section 94 is the most important part of the process because it is about limiting extraction to enable the wine to evolve.”
Ben Glover of Zephyr Wines
Marlborough winemaker Ben Glover has made three vintages of his alternative style of Sauvignon Blanc and is now working on his fourth. The first was in 2013 followed by 2015 and 2017 and, now, the 2018.
“We were inspired by a combination of things. A block of land that runs east-west grows Sauvignon Blanc that gets golden on the sunny side and doesn’t have the traditional green spike that’s in a lot of Sauvignon, so I wanted to capture its flavours using old oak and time on lees. This year I bought some stainless steel barrels to mimic what a barrel does but without the aeration and oxidation.”
“You’ve got to be very deft, so I’m using very old barrels –at least 10 years old.”
His aim is to make something that enhances the texture of the wine, without malolactic fermentation, which he finds too similar to Chardonnay and too clunky in Sauvignon Blanc. No sulphur is added at all until bottling in December each year.
Further north
Winemaker Peter Cowley began making Cape Crest in 1984, taking over from previous Te Mata winemaker, Mike Bennett, who pioneered the wine in 1982 using grapes grown at Te Awanga.
“When I first saw the wine when I turned up in 1984, it had incredibly high free sulphur but about 20 years later the sulphur disappeared and it was just a lovely drink – there was plenty of sugar in it at the time too; probably 50 grams,” Cowley recalls.
“I began mucking about with barrel ferment in 1985 and 1986 with half a dozen old barrels, which provided a nuance of the biscuit barrel, toasty taste. The idea was to make a wine with texture that was not too sharp and had roundness.”
He used about 10 percent new oak to achieve this. The inspiration was dry white Bordeaux. He and winery founder John Buck imported some Sauvignon Gris and Barossa Semillon clones in the mid to late 90s so Cape Crest includes about 15 percent of other grapes. Cowley says the Sauvignon Gris (a variety in its own right) adds aromatic qualities while the Semillon is more subtle in flavour.
“There’s nothing tricky about Cape Crest. It’s low cropped and we hand pluck leaves so that you can see about 40 percent of the bunches.
“This gives sub-tropical flavours. We use up to 30 percent new oak and the wine wears it well. It adds a slightly toasty but almost toasted coconut taste to the wine.”
Cowley says more Semillon has been discussed but would then need to be labelled, which he thinks that might be too much information for some people.
“We have tried to import Muscadelle for ages (the third ingredient in classic dry white Bordeaux) and we are finally able to bring it in, so we’ll be using it soon but we’re so happy with the wine, I don’t know what it’s going to add. We’ll see.”
The overall aim is to make an individualistic wine that is approachable and tastes delicious rather than something that is difficult for people to get their heads and taste buds around.
Growth in new styles
One of the most surprising things about new wave Sauvignon Blanc styles is the sheer number being made.
There were so many very different styles; whole bunch styles such as Michael Glover’s and others. It’s inspiring to see people trying lots of different ways to create interest in the country’s most widely grown grape and most important wine.
