Sauvignon blanc is widely considered by the wine drinkers of the world to reach its pinnacle of potential in Marlborough. The Astrolabe Province Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is made from grapes grown across three Marlborough sub-regions: the Wairau Valley, the Awatere Valley and the Kēkerengū Coast. The blend of sites, soils and aspects within this wine gives it great complexity, reflecting both the capability of the region as a whole and my own palate. I have sought out sites across the whole Marlborough wine region, looking for different soils and climates and carefully managing cropping levels so that I have the best fruit to work from.

We machine harvest the grapes at night or in the cool parts of the day to preserve the purity and intensity of flavours. In the winery, I take great care to handle the fruit in a way which allows the flavours and aromas of the region to come through. At the end of the growing season, I look at all the wines I have made from the various sub-regions and try to put together the most complete and balanced, integrated version of a Marlborough sauvignon blanc.

I blend to suit what I think is Astrolabe’s style, which reflects what I’ve learnt as a winemaker and drinker over the years. My style is dry, expressive and elegantly balanced. For me it is about getting a lovely sense of fully developed green spectrum flavours from all these different sites and putting them in a glass in a way that is well-styled and elegant. My Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc always presents with ripe green flavours like passionfruit, blackcurrant leaf and gooseberry. In the palate, it is full and round and finishes dry and lingering.

This is a drier style of sauvignon blanc, acidity kept nicely in balance with the alcohol and the very little residual sugar that is there, so it’s all about how all these things come together to make a pleasurable whole. I craft my wines so that nothing stands out as one singular spike, instead revealing a lovely layering of flavours and aromas that people can keep finding as they spend time savouring the glass.

Simon Waghorn — Winemaker