When Sue and Greg White gave up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht, they could barely have imagined that it might lead to a life of winemaking in Marlborough, but that's exactly what happened. As romantic as their story has been, it's also been a lot of sheer hard work, which is why their winery has become one of the most successful in Marlborough today. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery.

Their new winemaker is Peter Jackson, who co hosted the Instagram tasting last night with me last week, featuring this delicious aromatic pair of dry whites, which impressed me with their freshness, relative dryness and high quality.

2018 Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Gris $21.99

Pinot Gris is a versatile grape variety, which can taste rich and expressive or simple and straightforward, depending on the crop levels in the vineyard and winemaking style. This tasty little number from Whitehaven Wines in Marlborough puts the variety’s best foot forward with its dry style (5 grams residual sugar per litre) and refreshing acidity adding nervy zest to the flavoursome citrusy style. Impressive.

2017 Whitehaven Marlborough Riesling $21.99

Riesling is never far from mind when visiting New Zealand’s biggest wine region, which may make a sea of Sauvignon Blanc, but which can also produce outstanding wines made from this under rated German variety.

This wine is made from a combination of hand and machine harvested fruit which was fermented at cool temperatures to retain fruit freshness as well as 11.6 grams per litre of residual sugar, nicely balanced by bright tasty acidity. It’s a succulent little number which rocks a lime zest flavour and drinks beautifully now but can age for at least a decade.