Charles Wiffen and his family are well known for producing well priced (affordable), well liked (very good quality) wines in a range of styles, all from Marlborough grapes.

While Merlot is the second most planted red in Marlborough, it lags a long way behind the popular Pinot Noir, but wines such as this show another, softer side to the red wine story in this country's biggest wine region. Good drinking now and very good value for money.

Section 94 is one of New Zealand great white wines, made from a small portion of vineyard land that was named Section 94 on the country's original lands and survey map. It's the brainchild of the highly experienced viticulturist-winemaking duo, Ivan Sutherland (one time Olympic medal winning rower) and James Healy, the grapes are 100% barrel fermented in new French oak followed by aging in oak. Complex, great and long lived maverick wine.

Layers of depth with nutty aromas and full bodied with dry flavours. Drinks well on release and can also age, as this example shows. It is 100% Sauvignon Blanc but is not labelled with the varietal as Sutherland and Healy want to highlight what's possible from the land first and foremost.

This is a very fragrant, full-bodied Gewurztraminer. The nose is concentrated and intense, with notes of rose petals, Turkish delight, musk and ginger. The palate is medium dry and textural, with a bright acidity to balance the gentle sweetness.

Located on the north facing slopes of the Brancott Valley, Clayvin Vineyard takes its unique name from the clay based soil profile that lies beneath the vineyard. The complex clay profile varies across the vineyard, allowing a number of different varieties to be grown, including Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The clay soil gives our Clayvin Pinot Noirs richness and generosity and an immediately appealing soft texture.

High density planting allows for very low yields per vine. Low yielding vines tend to produce wines of great concentration and richness.

This vineyard consistently produces grapes of outstanding quality.

Winery notes 
"This wine pays tribute to David Herd, who established Marlborough’s first commercial vineyard and winery at Auntsfield in the 1870s. Using David’s original vineyard site and specific Muscat Clone, this wine is made by applying the Methode Ancestrale technique, which can be traced to production of the first sparkling wine “Blanquette de Limoux” in 1531. As in the 153o’s, and 1870’s, fermentation with natural yeast is completed in bottle. The result is a wine that honours the foundational work of our ancestors and celebrates continued discovery and pleasure.

With each bottle being it’s own fermentation no two bottles are exactly the same. With little sulphur in bottle, this wine evolves in the glass. Initially this wine has fresh aromas of fresh apple, elderflower, nashi pear with hints of mint, and wild honey. In the glass, the brighter apple and pear notes dissipate and reveal more of the Muscat floral and exotic spice aromas. The palate has a fresh and crisp acidity, with tangy green apple. It is light and lively. With a slight brioche and almond complexity giving some generosity to the palate at this early stage of life.

The historic Petits Grains Muscat block is exactly where it all started at Auntsfield in 1873. These vines are trained along the old wire and Manuka posts as they historically were. This block has the potential for heavy crops, so we spend a lot of time carefully removing leaves very early in the season before flowering to reduce the bunch sizes and number of berries that set. Each bunch is carefully tended to during the growing season as this variety is fragile and requires optimum conditions to fully express the incredible aromatics of Muscat.

Limited Edition of just 820 bottles produced."

The rose is on trend with its pale colour, dry taste and fleshy summer berry aromas, thanks to being 100% Pinot Noir with light skin contact to retain its light hue and freshness. 

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery. Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

Fromm Vineyard Syrah is grown solely at Fromm’s Home Vineyard in the Wairau Valley, which is certified organic with BioGro NZ. 

This is an intensely flavoursome Syrah with dark, delicious black fruit flavours and complex earthy notes of cedar, toasted spice and notes of oak. Winemaker Hatsch Kalberer blends three per cent of the white grape, Viognier, into this full bodied wine, to add depth and fleshy appeal. He suggests this wine has at least five years’ of aging potential up its sleeve so it can be enjoyed now and cellared. Buy two bottles to do both. 

The grapes in this wine come from the Yarrum Vineyard on the Brancott/Ben Morven ridge, a hillside from which all grapes are hand harvested and fermented with wild yeasts and daily plunging. This rich, dark, full bodied and flavoursome Pinot Noir has huge structure and ability to age, with earthy notes and ripe dark fruit flavours. This is one of Marlborough’s top Pinot Noirs. Worthy of a decanter, a large glass and time to enjoy its complexity.

One of Marlborough's best bubblies, Nautilus is modelled on Bollinger Special Cuvee and aged for three years before release - a long ageing time that provides depth, complexity of yeasty flavours and it retains freshness... This dry, full bodied, deliciously yeasty sparkling wine is a blend of 71.4% Pinot Noir and 28.6% Chardonnay. All grapes are hand picked, fermented with a champagne yeast with only the first run of juice going to fermentation to retain a fineness in flavour and texture. The wine typically contains 5 to 15% of reserve wines, held back from previous vintages, to add complexity and consistency to the wine. 

It is aged on lees in bottle for three years prior to disgorgement, which takes place regularly to ensure every bottle on the market remains fresh in flavour. 

Winemaker Clive Jones creates a consistently vibrant sparkling wine here which has pronounced yeasty, fresh bread aromas and rich savoury flavours. 

Nautilus is a member of Methode Marlborough, a group of quality minded winemakers in the country's biggest wine region, who have dedicated themselves to producing sparkling wines with a minimum of 18 months aging in the bottle and made 100% from grapes grown in their region.

Hans and Therese Herzog winery established their winery in Marlborough in 1994 and have since gone on to produce some of the region's most diverse, high quality, small volume wines, including this blend of 50% Viognier, 30% Marsanne and 20% Roussanne, which were fully fermented to dryness in this spicy, peachy, full bodied white. This wine is modelled on the great whites of the northern Rhone in France and the wine takes its name for that region's famous Mistral wind which blows through the valley. 

Extended skin contact and cold maceration provide the colour intensity and flavour in this wine. The Marsanne and Roussanne were fermented together with wild yeasts in 500 litre puncheons then blended with the Viognier and aged in 500 litre French oak puncheons for 18 months. 

The finished wine was bottled without fining or filtration, so is vegan friendly.

Full bodied, dry, smooth and creamy wine, which has great tension and finely balanced acidity in every succulent sip. Here's a Chardonnay that succeeds admirably in highlighting all the bells and whistles that white wine lovers enjoy in their favourite full bodied white, but also has the restraint of a beautifully balanced wine. 

Organic certification

The organic story at Seresin

One of the greatest things about Seresin Estate is the organic certification. This came relatively early on for Seresin, who was dismayed by the amount used and the impacts of man made chemicals, which were routinely and frequently sprayed on vines. His early adopting philosophy of organic certification paved a positive path for the integrity of the wines as well as leading others to follow suit.

Fantastic value for money, dry and flinty with brief lees maturation adding depth, which balances the fresh acidity in this zesty little wine. It was fined once and lightly filtered before bottling.  

Clos Henri began 22 years ago in Marlborough when the French Bourgeois family expanded their winemaking from the heart of Sancerre in the tiny village of Chavignol to Blenheim, in 2001. Now that their vines are 22 years of age , the family feels that they are only now starting to reflect and express the taste of the land. This family retains their land and winemaking in Chavignol where they have made wine for 11 generations.

Smith & Sheth is a relatively new wine brand, which is made by extremely experienced wine hands. Viticulturist and Master of Wine Steve Smith sourced grapes for this wine from low yielding old vines averaging 25 years in age from the rocky, bony soils around the Renwick township in Marlborough. These were blended with biodynamically grown grapes from the elevated slopes of Sam and Mandy Weaver's Churton Vineyard. The result is a concentrated, refreshing and super intense Sauvignon with drive and backbone, coupled with the refreshing tang provided by bright acidity, which makes every sip linger. 

Complex, dry, fleshy textured Sauvignon Blanc from Huia Wines in Marlborough; 50 to 60% of the grapes were fermented in older French oak with wild yeasts giving the wine a beautiful complex nose. Certified organic.