Wine region
Marlborough
Marlborough in the north-east of New Zealand’s South Island: Sauvignon Blanc country, with the Wairau and Awatere valleys, screwcaps and fine Pinot Noir.
- Vineyard area
- about 28,000 hectares, around 70 per cent of New Zealand’s vineyards
- Main grapes
- Sauvignon Blanc; then Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris
- Sub-regions
- Wairau Valley (gravel), Southern Valleys (loess), Awatere Valley (cooler and windier)
- Climate
- sunny and dry, warm summers, cool nights thanks to sea breezes
- Signature wines
- Sauvignon Blanc with passion fruit and gooseberry, Pinot Noir, traditional-method sparkling wine
- Milestone
- first large plantings in 1973 (Montana), international breakthrough with Cloudy Bay in 1985
Marlborough lies in the north-east of New Zealand’s South Island, around the town of Blenheim, and is the country’s largest wine region: with about 28,000 hectares it holds some 70 per cent of New Zealand’s vineyards, and it supplies about three quarters of production and by far the largest share of wine exports. Yet it is young. The first large plantings were made in 1973 by the company Montana, today Brancott Estate; Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc became known worldwide through Cloudy Bay, an estate founded in 1985.
The climate is sunny and dry, with warm summers and autumns and cool nights thanks to breezes from the sea. The warm days bring ripeness, the cool nights slow the loss of acidity and preserve the aromas; the ripening season is long. Three sub-regions are usually distinguished. The Wairau Valley around Blenheim is the core, with the free-draining gravel soils of a river plain. The Southern Valleys on the Wither Hills have heavier soils of glacial loess. The Awatere Valley further south is cooler and windier, and its wines are tauter and more herbal.
Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is unmistakable: passion fruit, gooseberry, grapefruit, lime and freshly cut grass, with lively acidity, usually made in stainless steel without oak. Anyone who knows Sauvignon from Sancerre in the Loire meets the same grape in a fruitier, more tropical version. In New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc covers almost two thirds of the vineyard area and makes up most of the exports; between 2003 and 2018 its area grew from about 4,500 to about 23,000 hectares, fivefold.
New Zealand is also regarded as a pioneer of the screwcap for quality wine. After 2001 producers switched quickly: from about 1 per cent of wines, the screwcap became the standard within a few years, and today it is the norm in New Zealand. Switzerland has known it for longer: the Stelvin cap was first used there in the 1970s, above all for Chasselas.
Pinot Noir is, after Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand’s second grape. In Marlborough it gives fruity, silky reds on the one hand and, together with Chardonnay, the base for traditional-method sparkling wine on the other, in which Champagne houses have also invested. At the table Sauvignon Blanc goes with fresh goat’s cheese, asparagus, perch fillets and seafood, also with dishes of herbs, lime and chilli; Pinot Noir with duck, mushrooms and salmon.