This Sauvignon Blanc is from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It was produced by Kim Crawford Wines. The grapes were harvested in April 2010 from vineyards in the Wairau Valley and the neighboring Awatere Valley.
This wine, like many wines from New Zealand and Australia, has a screw cap instead of a cork. I know some people don’t like screw caps, but I like them. The type of closure certainly doesn’t indicate anything about the quality of wine. I’ve had some very good wines with screw caps, and I’ve had some bad wines with corks. The screw caps are easy to open, too. The only downside I see to the screw caps is that some of the ritual of opening a bottle is missing. I’ll admit that there is something satisfying about cutting the foil and extracting the cork from a wine bottle. Ultimately, though, the enjoyment comes from drinking the wine, not opening it.
I don’t really have anything to pair with the wine, but I wanted to try the wine anyway.
Wow! Lots of fruit on the nose. It smells like pineapple, gooseberry, and maybe something else.
With the first taste, I identified the other fruit. It’s papaya. Lots of fruit on the palate, along with maybe a bit of floral. Nice acidity balances the fruit well. This is really good. I typically prefer red wines, but this is a white I really like. Dry, flavorful, well-balanced.
I feel like there’s another flavor that I’m not able to describe. That’s OK. You can figure it out for yourself. The wonderful part of wine is tasting for yourself, not reading about someone else tasting it. I just hope that this review, along with my other reviews, will give you enough information to help you decide if this is a wine you’d like.
This wine gets an “Excellent” rating from me. I highly recommend this wine, especially if you can find it on sale like I did. (I paid $12.99 for this bottle. Regular price at that store is $17.99).
Please note that I include prices to give you a general idea of the price of the wine. Depending on where you live, you may find wines for more or less than what I paid.