Sauvignon Blanc takes the Spotlight at Wine + Food Experience

Sauvignon Blanc takes the Spotlight at Wine + Food Experience Marlborough

Sauvignon Blanc is in the spotlight at Wine + Food Experience Marlborough as the region’s best examples of the variety take centre stage.

Five Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs of different styles are the current focus of a wine display celebrating Marlborough’s most successful wines at the 2025 Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect. 

The showcase was carefully timed to coincide with the region’s celebration of Sauvignon Blanc throughout the month of May, and will remain a feature at the venue in the heart of Blenheim until the end of June.

The wines on display; Brancott Estate Letter Series B Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Kim Crawford Small Parcels Sauvignon Blanc 2025, Delta Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2024, Saint Clair Barrique Sauvignon Blanc 2021 and Rimapere Plot 101 Sauvignon Blanc 2024 each picked up trophies at the show, and together, demonstrate the diversity Marlborough has to offer when it comes to the variety that put the region on the world wine map.

“Bringing together a range of Sauvignon Blancs from the Marlborough Wine Show 2025 offers a rare and valuable opportunity to experience the full breadth of what Marlborough can achieve,” Brancott Estate Senior Winemaker Greg Harris said.

“From current vintages to aged examples, alternative styles, and subregional expressions, it allows people to move beyond the “one-style” perception and really explore the nuance within the category … it’s not just a tasting; it’s a compelling snapshot of Marlborough’s evolution and a celebration of why it continues to lead the world in Sauvignon Blanc.”

Brancott Estate’s winning wine, the Letter Series B Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2023 won the Barrel Finance & Logistics Champion Sweet Wine trophy at the show. The wine is crafted in a late harvest style that utilises riper fruit with more concentrated sugars and flavour, Greg says.

“It shows rich notes of apricot, honey, and tropical fruit, with a luscious, sweet palate balanced by bright acidity, keeping it fresh rather than heavy.

“What makes it especially standout is how it challenges expectations of Sauvignon Blanc, showcasing the variety’s versatility while still expressing the vibrant intensity Marlborough is known for.”

Marlborough is rightly known to be a standout region in which to produce exceptional Sauvignon Blanc, Greg says, and bringing together a wide range of styles in one display offers a rare and valuable opportunity to experience the breadth of what Marlborough can achieve.

One such example is the winner of the Vit Management Ltd Champion Organic Wine trophy, Rimapere Plot 101 Sauvignon Blanc 2024, which is crafted with a vision to encapsulate Marlborough’s terroir, says Rimapere Estates Director Anne Escalle.

“Producing organic Sauvignon Blanc begins in the vineyard, with a fundamentally different approach to how vines and soils are managed. Organic growing means eliminating synthetic herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers, and instead working with soil life, products from nature and encouraging the best vines balance,” she says.

“This approach has a direct impact on grape quality. Healthier soils encourage deeper root systems and better natural regulation of the vine, leading to grapes that ripen more evenly and retain fresh acidity and reveal a mineral expression in the wine. In the winery, this balance allows for a more restrained and precise winemaking style, with fewer corrective interventions, as the fruit is already biologically stable and carries clarity and purity.”

Marlborough offers a diverse range of Sauvignon Blanc styles, Anne says, and organic farming is just one factor that can lead to different expressions in the bottle.

“While the region is known for a recognisable aromatic style, subtle differences along the Wairau Valley lead to very distinct expressions … This diversity is further shaped by viticultural and winemaking choices, such as parcel selection, harvest timing, organic practices, lees aging, or partial oak fermentation, proving that Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is far from a single uniform style,” Anne says.

The winner of the WineWorks Champion Sauvignon Blanc, current vintage, trophy was the Kim Crawford Small Parcels Sauvignon Blanc 2025, which Kim Crawford Chief Winemaker Dave Edmonds describes as ‘unashamedly very explosive aromatically’.

“The Kim Crawford Small Parcel Sauvignon Blanc is something that’s very close to my heart,” he says. “It brings a lot of what winemakers call thiols. Think of passionfruit, pink grapefruit and citrus zest. All of those things come through strongly with this wine. Not only is it all about the aromatics, it also needs to have that mid-palate concentration that, as soon as you swallow the mouthful of wine, it’s this massive hit of flavour and you know that you’re drinking Sauvignon Blanc.”

“Marlborough is divided into six subregions, each offering something unique. In my view, that’s what makes Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc so special.  It’s not just one thing, but a blend of many distinctive qualities from the different regions. At blending time, winemakers can use their skills to combine different ferments from various vineyards, creating a complex and remarkable wine.”

Saint Clair Barrique Sauvignon Blanc 2021, which features in the display after winning the Chandler Glass & Packaging Alternate Style Sauvignon Blanc trophy, is an example of a Sauvignon Blanc treated differently right from the vineyard.

The wine utilises fruit from only carefully selected rows of vines within a few of the company’s best vineyards in the Lower Wairau subregion, where soils are nutrient-rich and free-draining. The fruit, picked slightly later than traditional Sauvignon Blanc, is partially whole-bunch pressed before being racked into seasoned French and American oak barriques and aged for ten months post-fermentation.

Saint Clair Family Estate Senior Winemaker Stewart Maclennan says the wine has been a passion project of the winery team for many years.

“Sauvignon Blanc can create a great diversity of wines; it’s a particular pleasure encouraging secondary characters from a variety otherwise known for its primary fruit flavour,” Stewart says.

“There is significant diversity [in Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc] driven by subregional differences, site selection, and winemaking approaches, but time and evolving philosophies and production methods are often less acknowledged, despite being equally important in shaping the region’s diversity.”

Delta Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2024, which won the WineWorks Champion Sauvignon Blanc 2024 & older trophy, also uses fruit from the Lower Wairau Valley subregion; specifically Dillons Point.
Winemaker Heather Stewart says the exceptional Dillons Point subregion has soils rich in micronutrients, which gives the Delta Sauvignon Blanc its lovely tropical characters. Even as the wine ages, she says, its vibrant, tropical notes continue to shine through and are the reason it still shows beautifully, despite not being the current vintage.

“Marlborough has a signature style, distinguishable across the wine world. The intensity of flavour carries throughout wines produced here. However, there is a lot of diversity across producers and within each producer’s portfolio. Subregional wines allow the distinct characters of each soil type and mesoclimate to be displayed in the wines. Marlborough also has versatility in winemaking styles and techniques; skin contact, barrel fermented or aged, sparkling, low alcohol, zero alcohol, late harvest, pet nat, are all styles that work with Sauvignon Blanc, and those that we and other producers have explored have been well received by international markets,” she says.

Heather says the Wine + Food Experience trophy-winning display is a chance for people to taste some of the subtle differences achieved thanks to different subregions and winegrowing and making techniques.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to explore the diversity and quality of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc all in one place, allowing comparison and understanding, and hopefully identifying a few favourites to take home to enjoy.”

The five Sauvignon Blancs will be on display at the Wine + Food Experience until the end of June, before another fleet of award-winning wines takes its place.

Call in and visit for your taste and even take some home - 42 Alfred Street, Blenheim.