The first year Kevin Judd made his Wild Sauvignon was in 2009 and the winemaking has remained consistent ever since with complexity, creaminess and a full body coming from the 100% barrel fermentation with wild yeasts followed by malolactic fermentation to soften the acidity for two thirds of the wine. It then spends approximately 11 months maturing in barrel and remains in tank for another six months for battonage (the French name for stirring the lees - the decomposing yeast cells left over in the wine).

Domaine Gérard Fiou is a family owned Estate that has been passed down for several generations. This old vine Sauvignon Blanc is grown on flinty soils in the Sancerre region of the Loire Valley. The exceptional flinty soils retain the day’s heat, keeping the vines at a moderate temperature at night which allows for even maturing of the Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The nose is characteristic of Sancerre with aromas of flinty minerality and delicate spice. The palate is powerful in fruit and in body. Generous acidity brings balance and seriousness to this wine.

Luna Estate is a relative newcomer on the Martinborough wine block and not only produces three top notch reds from the region's most planted grape variety, Pinot Noir, but also a range of exceptionally tasty dry whites, such as this Sauvignon Blanc.

It's made from a blend of grapes grown on the winery's two different vineyards; the Eclipse site on Puruatanga Road and the Blue Rock Vineyard south of the township.

This is dry, light bodied, crisp and fresh with intense flavours of tropical fruit underpinned by refreshing green herb notes. A great wine to drink with fresh seafood.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc is an iconic New Zealand wine with depth, complexity and a dry style.  Fermentation is carried out mostly in stainless steel tanks which delivers freshness and directly fruit flavours, which are balanced by a small portion of the wine, typically 4% of the blend, being fermented at warmer temperatures in old French oak barriques. A little goes a long way and this oak fermentation provides a smoothness, softness and flavoursome interest to this deliciously complex Sauvignon Blanc. Its flavour notes span the spectrum of appealing tropical fruit and herbs to dry spicy aromas and a lingering freshness on the long finish. 

These complex winemaking factors combine to create a wine that is a noticeable step up from many other Sauvignon Blancs on the market.

Greystone is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines. 

This Sauvignon Blanc was 100% barrel fermented in old oak with wild yeasts and is made from fully certified organic grapes with BioGro NZ certification. Like all Greystone wines, it is made entirely from estate grown fruit with nothing bought in to supplement production. This is one of many incremental steps at Greystone that consistently ensures high quality. Partial malolactic fermentation provides creamy flavour notes to this wine, which are kept in check with the balance of bright acidity and a light spicy taste which further adds complexity.

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality.

Sauvignon Blanc with a powerful new twist - full bodied, textural dry white blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Sauvignon Gris (a varietal in its own right rather than a blend, despite the name). This wine is bone dry and refreshing with high but beautifully balanced acidity. Flavours of ripe gooseberry, lime and sea salt, dill, coriander, beeswax  and subtle woodsmoke notes all combine in this beautiful barrel fermented white. 

This is one of New Zealand's iconic dry, full bodied, top quality Sauvignon Blancs with its lush fruity style and bold flavours. 

Te Mata Estate is one of Hawke's Bay's oldest working wineries and was among the first to pioneer the purity of Bordeaux styled Sauvignon Blanc.

If you’re looking for complexity and recogniseably familiar flavours, try out Cloudy Bay’s top tier Sauvignon Blanc, known simply Te Koko, which is made from grapes grown on some of this iconic winery’s oldest vineyards, which produce grapes with high concentration and intense aromatics.

After gentle pressing and settling for a period of 24 hours, the juice is racked directly to French oak barrels, a small portion of which is new (typically less than 10%) where it undergoes a slow steady fermentation initiated by indigenous yeasts. The wine rests in barrel on fine lees for about seven months. Whilst in barrel, the wine undergoes a partial malolactic fermentation and then careful maturation in the cellar creates the unique texture and acid profile of Te Koko.

Aromatically, Te Koko unfolds with a complex array of citrus and stone fruit, complemented by exotic floral notes on the finish. the use of oak at fermentation.

Dog Point Vineyards has the largest amount of certified organic vineyard land in New Zealand, thanks to its visionary founders, Ivan Sutherland and James Healy, who grow grapes for themselves and sell to a number of other winemakers in this country. 

The Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc is one of Marlborough's best, thanks to high quality grapes, post ferment lees aging and the result is a dry, medium bodied white from one of the world's biggest Sauvignon regions. This is an iconic wine from an exceptionally dedicated winemaking team.

Flinty, fresh and fabulously zesty in flavour, Greg Sauvignon Blanc is 100% Awatere Valley fruit and is a medium bodied, intensely fresh expression of Marlborough's most planted white grape variety, with herbaceous, tomato leaf and blackcurrant flavours.  

We think it's a winner and we're not alone - this wine is the winner of a Gold Medal at the Sakura Awards in Japan in 2020, which is why we think it represents great value for money. And that's not all. 

Awards for this wine

2020 Concours Mondial Du Sauvignon: Revelation Trophy

2020 Royal Easter Show Wine Awards: Champion Export Wine Trophy

2020 Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards: Gold

2019 Top 100 new release wines, Gourmet Traveller Wine - 5 Stars Michael Cooper, NZ - 4.5 Stars

Joe Czerwinski for Robert Parker, US. - 90/100 Points

Bob Campbell, NZ - Gold Ribbon: 5 Stars (Third vintage in a row)

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.

Vines between the sea and the mountains make for a romantic story and the raw ingredients that go into this distinctively dry and complex Sauvignon Blanc. 

It comes from a vineyard at Kekerengu, south of Blenheim. It is the most southern vineyard in the Marlborough region. 

All of the grapes in this wine were hand picked and fermented in stainless steel to full dryness. The wine's flavours are fresh, light, herbal and succulent with a salty tang on the finish, which lingers, refreshingly, long after the last sip. 

This is a different take on the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc theme, which will appeal to those looking for the next layer of flavour as well as fans of fruit forward Sauvignon Blanc. Here's a wine that combines both complexity with recognisable appeal. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

"Les Baronnes" is a wine of exotic fruit and citrus aromas; subtle yet powerful. Its persistence and harmony find their origin in the exposition and quality of the terroir. Delicate nose with aromas of white flesh fruits and citrus, this Sancerre is highlighted by its typicity. - Henri Bourgeois. 

Hand harvested grapes were whole bunch pressed and treated to a long, slow fermentation followed by nine months of lees aging, which adds weight, texture and interesting savoury flavour notes to this medium bodied, dry Sauvignon Blanc. This wine ticks all the boxes; with its concentrated flavours, dry style, the integrity of 100% hand harvested grapes which are certified organic.

Churton founder and winemaker Sam Weaver cut his teeth on the classic wines of the world while working in fine wine retail in the United Kingdom. His background is in microbiology and he was raised on a farm, so when he and his wife Mandy founded Churton Estate, it combined all of his passions. The couple and their adult sons, have created one of this country's most high quality small wineries, which lives up to the dream of creating 100% estate grown grapes, 100% certified organic production and 100% bottled on site, nearly all of the wines without fining or filtration. All grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the majority of Churton wines. These incremental qualitative decisions impact at every step of their winemaking provides exceptional quality grapes which in turn express themselves in outstanding wines.

Succulent dry white modelled on the great dry whites of Bordeaux. This classic and beautifully balanced, bone dry blend contains 44 % Sauvignon Blanc, 36 % Semillon, 11 % Clairette Blanche and 9% Chenin Blanc from South Africa's Western Cape.

What the critics say...

"There is no doubt that Duncan Savage is one of the best white wine winemakers in South Africa. His track record speaks for itself. Taming Sauvignon Blanc and more so, Semillon, from cool climate sites in the Cape, has revealed the real potential of these varietals in a blend to a whole new generation of winemakers and consumers. The 2015 however, must be Duncan's most anticipated wine with the vintage lauded as possibly the best ever in SA for white wines. A Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon based blend incorporates small amounts of Clairette Blanche and Chenin Blanc this year. This slightly bigger blend perhaps explains the wines broader aromatic profile. There is still the dusty lemon and herb spice, yellow grapefruit and lime peel freshness, but also extra notes of white pear, white pepper, white crunchy peaches and green apple zest. Once again, the pithy minerality of crushed gravel underpins both the nose and palate and there's an almost German, Pfalz-like strawberries and vanilla ice cream exotism in play. The palate is bold, intense and concentrated with pithy gravelly notes balanced by massive fruit concentration and length. The vintage's sublime quality is indeed standing up to be counted! Duncan has perfectly captured the essence of 2015's greatness. But the wine remains classical, measured, restrained and fresh and finally unlocks its hallmark lemon and pineapple pastille fruit character on the long, intense finish. This is a truly grand expression, a wine that will demand its place in your cellar. Could this be Duncan's greatest white expression to date?" Drink now to 2028+ (96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

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.