1985, “We are the World” was playing everywhere you went, the wreck of the Titanic was found, Microsoft released th
e first version of Windows, Canterbury rolled the Saints 7 to 6, and the mighty Bombers thrashed the Hawks 170 to 92 to win a consecutive premiership.
Across the ditch, in an Auckland harbour, the French got a bit sneaky and sank the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, and over in Marlborough a little winery called Cloudy Bay were making their first vintage.
From the start Cloudy Bay made a great sauvignon blanc, it became so popular that if you ordered a carton, you were lucky to get six bottles, and created such a cult following that each shipment sold out nearly before it had arrived on the shores. This was one of the two wineries that put New Zealand sav blanc on the top of everyone’s shopping list. Almost every other winery in New Zealand seemed to try making a connection with Cloudy Bay on their marketing; “we are down the road”, “in the adjacent vineyard to the famous Cloudy Bay”, “the man that mucks out our stables used to work there”, “our chief winemaker once called in there while going to see his Nanna”. And while Cloudy Bay once stood head and shoulders above almost all of its competitors, it’s not so much the case now with quite a significant number of Kiwi wineries making quite a significant number of interesting, high quality sauvignon blanc, that is much different from the normal savvies that we see out of the Marlborough region, Astrolabe, Dog Point, Greywacke are few examples (interestingly Greywacke and Dog Point are all ex-Cloudy Bay).
There have been a few bumps in the road for Cloudy Bay as they have charged on over the years, a few vintages in the late nineties and then again in the noughties, where the wines were well below the bar that Cloudy Bay had set for themselves. However in the last five to six years though, I think that Cloudy Bay has shown their sauvignon blanc to be possibly better than ever, with their 2014 being one of the best vintages I can remember. A wine with such a persistent rich mineral finish to it, this vintage might even be able to age for a few years if cellared well.
Now part of the giant corporation that is Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the winery has been able to fund acquisitions of newer vineyards, outside of its traditional Marlborough base, to grow their pinot noir holdings, and building a specialist pinot noir facility. They have expanded their range of wines over the years, to include chardonnay, a sparkling, pinot noir, riesling and an oak aged sauvignon blanc called Te Koko, a wine that is ok, but not great, there are many more interesting versions of this style, even from NZ out there.
But for me it’s their Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc that I come back to time and again. The aromatics are always explosive from the glass, but it’s the addition of weight that sets this wine apart for me. It feels fuller and has a richness in the mouth that allows it to be had by itself or with food. In fact the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc often excels with food in a way that lesser quality Kiwi savvy’s can’t hope to match. It’s racy, zippy and has a wonderful, crunchy and cleansing acidity.
And it’s that acidity that makes it match so well with food, especially spicy Asian styled seafood.
Try it with a a huge plate of chilli soft shell crab and see what I mean.
