Andrew Hedley Gets Savvy About NZ Savvy

There are several styles of Sauvignon Blanc made in New Zealand, probably not vastly different in the eyes of most consumers, but different nonetheless.

The first broad comparison would be between those from vines grown on the North Island and those from the South Island, or maybe North Island vs Marlborough vs Rest of the South Island. The North Island is generally warmer; a certain amount of SB is planted in Hawke’s Bay, and a sprinkling in other regions. Because of this extra warmth, the NI SBs are typically fatter and with more tropical fruit aromas and flavours than their SI counterparts. There is a family of flavour compounds called methoxypyrazines (let’s call them MPs) that give rise to the signature “green” flavours in SB - you know the sort of green pepper flavours that they contribute to. As the grapes ripen, MP levels decrease as a function of temperature (the warmer the temperature the less MP character you get) - so it follows generally that warmer climate SB exhibit more green flavours and aromas than cooler regions. The Hawke’s Bay/NI wines are quite suitable for barrel fermentation or fumé styles. Many people think they are less interesting than the Marlborough styles but that’s not necessarily valid, just different in style - less zingy, often not overtly pungent and a good food style. In the south island, it’s cooler so there is often more MP character to the wines, though this can be reduced by leaf plucking to allow light onto the bunches and warm them up. Marlborough, in particular, seems to have a special (unique?) set of climatic/terroir conditions which yields a rich and diverse palette of punchy flavours for its Sauvignon, whereas other versions from the rest of the south island (eg Nelson, Waipara and Central Otago) tend to be one dimensional and herbaceous.

Even within Marlborough various different styles are being developed, due to a combination of terroir and winemaking. Some barrel fermented styles are made, certain of which are quite extreme with “funky” wild ferment and malolactic fermentation (eg Te Koko from Cloudy Bay, Marama from Seresin), whilst others are more mainstream, eg Clayridge Excalibur. Generally, these are made from riper fruit with more body and less herbaceousness than the “typical” Marlborough style. Framingham also made a wine in this fashion from estate grown fruit in 2008 and we have started work on a follow-on this year from the same fruit. Part old oak barrel, part stainless steel with some mlf and long lees aging it is quite mineral and textured in style -very different from the standard tank ferment Framingham. These wines tend to age better as well.

Terroir influences are also now being actively pursued in Marlborough. The best comparison to make is between fruit from Wairau Valley and Awatere Valley sites. The Awatere is about 15-20km south of the Wairau Valley. You will be familiar with the Wairau Valley flavours by now as both we and Clos Henri make wines from the Wairau. The Awatere flavours have a distinct tomato stalk/leaf character to them which is attractive - we’re not sure what exactly causes this difference as yet but it is surely a climate/terroir thing. Sub-regional Wairau characteristics are attracting more focus - definitely terroir/climate interactions. There are three major different soil types in our valley: stony/gravelly with some silt, and soils with more clay content - the third being a mixture of these. Stony/gravelly soils are, of course, well drained, don’t retain water and are warm because of that. They invariably need some irrigation to keep the canopy healthy for ripening - any yellowing of leaves during the growing season can quickly lead to vegetal flavours developing and the situation is not retrievable. Water stress and SB are not a good marriage if you want typical Marlborough flavours. SB grown on these soils ripens earlier and is typically quite light and elegant with red currant, tropical and stony, mineral characters - you could call these Rapaura soils and that’s what we have on our vineyard in the main. Soils with more clay content occur in what are called the southern valleys (eg Brancott and Waihopai) - Clos Henri is in the southern valleys area. These hold more water, often aren’t irrigated, are cooler and tend to be late ripening - the temps generally in the southern valleys are lower anyway and they can be frost prone. The wines have better weight and typically reveal more aggressive, punchy flavours. Research in the last five years or so has revealed another set of flavour compounds (so called Volatile Thiols - let’s say VTs) which are responsible for passionfruit, grapefruit and boxwood type aromas and flavours in SB. The formation of these compounds is favoured where nitrogen uptake from the soils is significant - and nitrogen uptake is generally proportional to the available water - so it follows that these soils can favour those flavours (it’s not quite as simple as that of course, you can get these flavours from stony soils as well periodically but since we’re talking generally it’s a good rule of thumb). There is an area known as lower Wairau which is further down towards the coast from where we are which also has these heavy soils and is the king of producing these kinds of flavours – this is where the “Saint Clair” style comes from. If you add into the mix some viticultural decisions such as leaf removal, and the fact that there are very distinct sub regional rainfall patterns, (wetter in the north around the Richmond ranges and much drier to the south around the Wither hills (not the wine brand!)), as well as a maybe 2-3C variation in average temperatures in various locales then you can see that there are significant climate/terroir effects at work.

For examples of these styles - something like Stoneleigh SB might be a typical Rapaura style (though you can’t always tell with the big companies whether they stay true to their stories), whereas St Clair is very much a lower Wairau style. Vavasour make a solely Awatere SB that is really good. Framingham’s Sauvignon currently is a mixture of these - we have Rapaura characters from our estate vineyard and then some warped mix of southern valleys and Awatere from the grapes we take from the north bank of the Wairau (it’s not near either of those but the soil is stones and clay and it’s wetter as it’s right in the north and it’s a bit cooler because of the shadow from the mountains).