Wine festival more than just sauvignon blanc

Armed with a modest amount of cash and a none-too-discerning palate, Express news editor BILL McELHINNEY embarks on a wine tasting journey at the Marlborough Wine Festival 2010.

One man, one glass and more than 70 wine exhibitors - this could be a challenge.

Fortunately, I decide from the outset I wasn't even going to try to get around them all. Besides, I live in Marlborough and have already had the opportunity to sample the region's finest.

So instead I choose to do two things: try to get an idea of what was popular on the day, and maybe try something new.

The first one was a no-brainer: on a sultry Marlborough afternoon our iconic sauvignon blanc was the wine on many people's lips. And hot on its heels was the sassy new kid on the block, sparkling sauvignon blanc. By mid afternoon several sites had sold out of their sparkling savvy.

But not far behind was another relative newcomer, pinot gris, which was proving popular at every site that had it. Riesling and chardonnay were close behind. Despite what some people say, there's still a market out there for big, grunty, oaky chardonnays.

The festival is, of course, an opportunity for local producers to showcase their wines and it's obviously worth the effort. During the course of the afternoon I came across people from France, Britain, America and all parts of New Zealand, particularly Auckland.

There was also a fair sprinkling of Wellingtonians: they were the pasty white ones blinking furiously in the sunlight, something they haven't seen for months.

It's good to start a wine journey with a palate cleanser, so I went straight to the Daniel Le Brun tent where a lovely dry, nutty Blanc de Blanc 2002 set things up for the day.

Time to try something different, and a Seresin Memento riesling certainly made an impression. This is a lower alcohol wine (10 per cent) which allows the fruit flavours to shine through. Lovely floral nose, hints of honey and apricots. I also tried the Fromm riesling spatlese, another low alcohol riesling. This was peaches and cream with a nice, dry finish.

There were, of course, countless sauvignon blancs to try and everyone has their favourites. Tohu, Mud House and St Clair were my personal picks on the day, but the crowds at the Oyster Bay and Wither Hills tents were ample evidence of why these brands are top sellers.

An interesting experience was a sample of aged sauvignon blanc from the Staete Landt site, a 2001 savvy. I have to say that to me, at least, it rather proved the point that past a certain point sauvignon blanc does not improve with age.

From something old to something new, a Montana reserve sauvignon gris. It's not a blend, but a largely unknown variety native to the Bordeaux region of France. Montana have planted a few trial blocks and after five years are now releasing the wine on the market.

So what's it like? Well it smells like savvy – that typical grassy nose, but in the mouth the pear and pineapple flavours of pinot gris come through. Great to see Montana, who were Marlborough's wine pioneers, forging ahead with something new.

Another of Marlborough's wine pioneer, Almuth Lorenz of Merlen Wines, introduced me to oaked sauvignon blanc, a style I've always liked, and I was pleased to find some at Dog Point Wines.

Their Dog Point Section 94 has spent some time on oak and the result is a citrus core with the mineral, yeasty notes. Nice.

Now much as I enjoy Marlborough's fine white wines, I'm a red wine drinker at heart, so I thought I'd round off the day with a nice, spicy syrah, and knowing that reds are their speciality, I went to Fromm. The wine was great, but somehow it just didn't work as the sun blazed down and the temperature hovered around 27 degrees. This is a wine for a medium-rare lamb rack on a cool evening. I should have stuck with the savvy!

- The Marlborough Express

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