Just imagine yourself getting up each morning and pouring your cornflakes into a bowl, covering them in milk, then pouring a fresh glass of fruit juice to wash it all down with, but instead of picking the Tropicana from the fridge you mistakenly take the remains of last nights Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to start your day with.  Would you notice?  Would you notice that you’re actually drinking wine with your breakfast and not fruit juice? 

Marlborough produces some stunning Sauvignon Blanc's

The answer is of course yes, (unless you are a raging alcoholic and actually intended to have wine for breakfast), but the point i’m making is that the famous, almost infamous, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is so fruit driven and easy to drink that you’d almost be mistaken for not noticing its a wine.  This is a good thing in the sense that across the board they provide a refreshingly simple and fruity wine that can be drank on its own without cringing and goes reasonably well with food. I say reasonably because more often than not the wines have so much flavour they overpower food and can take away from the whole food and wine experience.  However i have found them to be a particularly good match for the local takeaway’s delicious fish and chips.

Waves of look-a-like NZ Sauvignon now exist

On the fruit juice side of things, wines like Oyster Bay, Wither Hills, Villa Maria along with mutitude of ”value brands” including Faultline and Bishops Leap have kept things simple by producing wines that are full of grassy, passionfruit flavours which are guaranteed to please almost anyone.  However the catch with these styles of wines are that they don’t really inspire and stuggle to go with food.  Yes they’ll provide that initial nose hair burning pungency that marlborough has become famous for, but they are essentially simple, quaffing wines that you won’t even notice drinking.  So easy to drink that you’ll have finished two bottles and won’t even realise until your legs won’t work and you’re talking funny. 

Perfect, many of you may think.  Wines that are full of flavour, wines that we can drink and not even notice until we are the wrong side of tipsy. Whats wrong wth that? 

Some Marlborough wineries such as Saint Clair are capable of world class wines

Well, on the serious side, some Marlborough producers now are thinking of the bigger picture and are trying to produce wines that offer the drinker something much more complex and if you like, “speak of their terroir”* while still being honest to the Marlborough template for Sauvignon Blanc.  The most obvious difference between the styles is the noticeable minerality in the wines, and often dialled down pungency which makes the wines much more food friendly.   This makes for a much more memorable, balanced and thought provoking drinking experience than the Marlborough standards produce.  Top producers of this style are Saint Clair with their Reserve and Pioneer ranges of Sauvignons which come from different blocks of vines based on their Terroir (a massive 20 different versions of Pioneer Sauvignon are produced).  Others producing this more complex style are the likes of The Ned, Greywacke (due to arrive soon), Mudhouse (particularly the swan reserve) and old favourite Cloudy bay (though the appeal like the ”rarity” factor of this wine has dramatically reduced over the last few years as companies such as Saint Clair have developed).  Some of these wines amongst others can rightfully claim to be world class, while other producers no matter where in the world they are from rarely get to the same standard with such consumate ease.  Sancerre as an example can produce some wonderful wines, but often has been the case that i’ve had expensive disappointments with this area.  By comparison where you spend £12-£15 on a Marlborough Sauvignon you’ll have to spend towards £20 and more to get the same quality of wine out of Sancerre.

So whats the moral of this story you may ask?   Don’t get caught up in the £4.99 – £6.99 Marlborough mania that currently exists as this is not a fair representation of what the region does.  These prices and equivalent qualities are a consequence new vineyards coming online at a time when the market is pressurised.  But for great value easy drinking everyday wines Marlborough Sauvignon is still hard to beat as a value proposition, but if you want wines that take it to another level and elevate food the region also produces great wines with complexity and balance well worth a try.  You won’t be disappointed.   

All comments welcome.  Until next time wine fans…

*Terroir = French term for when a grape, soil and climate are matched to produce the best possible combination, hence “speaking of their Terrior” means the wine indictates through its smell and taste as to what it is made from and where it was produced and in what vintage.