I know what you’re thinking — it’s the depths of winter, but he’s suggesting rose — however, there are more and more people drinking this style year round and these three are worthy of your attention.
The second trio is sauvignon blanc, ‘‘but not as we know it, Jim’’.
These express another side of sauvignon blanc, with the use of wild yeast, barrel ageing (and in the case of the Pegasus Bay an addition of semillon), lees stirring, et cetera creating powerfully weighted wines that sing with food.
2020 Villa Maria Earth Garden Organic Hawke’s Bay rose
Price: $19.99
Rating: Very good to excellent
Floral and aromatic nose, peaches and cream dusted with spice, a wisp of nectarine, bread dough and salinity with time. Attractive creaminess, mixed berryfruit with a savoury undercurrent, wine gums later. Juicy and bright, finishing dry. Savouriness grows, becoming soft and supple on the close.
2020 Main Divide North Canterbury rose
Price: $20.99
Rating: Excellent
Fascinating nose that marries ripe apple and nectarine with a funky nuance. Creamy and rich entry, the fruit filling the mouth, adding strawberry and a tangy hint that lends zesty crunchiness. Grows nicely with aeration, gaining depth, with ripe apple and gum framing the long finish. Remains lively and fresh, leaving you salivating. Pleasure in a glass.
2020 Domaine Thomson Surveyor Thomson Central Otago pinot noir rose
Price: $35
Rating: Excellent
A hint of Turkish delight shifts to strawberries and cream. Fruit pastilles lead before the savoury core takes charge, apple and red fruits building; while there’s a sweetly fruited aspect to this it finishes relatively dry, the acidity adding bright freshness. Textural, and could work well with food, too.
2018 Greywacke Wild Marlborough sauvignon blanc
Price: $38.50
Rating: Excellent to outstanding
Sweat, smoke, struck match, bread, tropical fruit nuances. Rich and powerful palate with a leesy/lactic feel, banana skin, toast, with tangy gooseberry underscoring it all. There’s weight and depth here without heaviness. Growing in interest as it opens, would be great with food.
2018 Pegasus Bay sauvignon semillon
Price: $34
Rating: Outstanding
Powerfully expressive nose of bonfire smoke, struck match, grass, green herbs and citrus grabs your attention. Intensely flavoured palate, flavours totally filling the mouth adding toasted bread & spices. Superb complexity and balance, flowing to a long, creamy close with a hint of corruption. Vibrant and alive with real energy to this.
2018 Giesen The August Marlborough sauvignon blanc
Price: $39.99
Rating: Excellent
Fascinating nose of citrus, banana pith, clotted cream and bread dough, shifting to dried herb and grass notes. Rich palate, full in the mouth with fruit sweetness, mixing nashi pear, white peach, burnt toast and a lactic nuance against tang. Texturally rich and taking a different path for sav.
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