BABICH WINEMAKERS' RESERVE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2008
Region:
Wairau, Awatere and Brancott Valleys, Marlborough
Winemaker:
Adam Hazeldine
Recommended Food:
Partner it with crumbed chicken breasts dabbed with mustard-cream sauce, or with baked salmon, smeared with salsa verde (puréed mint, parsley and capers).
Recommended Cellaring:
1-3 years
Production Notes:
Selected parcels of fruit where fermented cool to capture classic Marlborough Sauvignon characters. 12% was fermented at warmer temperatures in large oak puncheons to add mouthfeel and complexity. The wine was aged on lees for several months prior to blending and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Classic Marlborough Sauvignon, both complex and subtle. A touch of sweat and herbal notes round off the wines inviting nose. The palate is focused and fleshy with layers of melon and tropical fruits. A mineral note along with a persistent Cape gooseberry character, linger on the palate, inviting further investigation.
Awards:
SILVER MEDAL
-Royal Easter Show Wine Awards 2010
Reviews:
"A gentle nose displaying apple, lime zest and fresh herb characters. The palate is well weighted with broad mouthfeel and crisp acidity. "
-Wine Orbit, July 2009
"Pale lemongreen. Bouquet is immediately clean and crisp sauvignon ripened to the red capsicum and black passionfruit level. Like the Astrolabe Awatere benchmark wine, it shows some sweet basil herbes and even elder blossom complexity. Palate is gorgeous, all the flavour of top examples of the grape, yet drier than most. The Awatere aromatics are readily apparent. This label has climbed to be one of the stars in the Babich range, and one of New Zealand’s best sauvignons, with superbly subtle complexity factors such as barrel-ferment and lees-autolysis built in, the oak near-invisible. This is how oak should be used in sauvignon ! Great food wine, and yet another to show that the top 2008 Marlborough sauvignons are as good as any year. Much too much has been made of Marlborough’s later-season rainfall, in what is intrinsically a low-rainfall and free-draining zone. Cellar 2 – 10 years."
5 STARS
-www.geoffkellywinesreviews.co.nz
"Enjoyable now, with good depth of ripe tropical-fruit flavours, a subtle seasoning of toasty oak and a smooth finish."
-Michael Cooper's Wine Buyer's guide to New Zealand Wines 2010
"It's youthful and aromatic on the nose displaying green capsicum, lime zest and blackcurrant characters. The palate is well fruited showing a nicely weighted mid palate, harmonised acidity and a firm dry finish. A herbaceous style ideally suited to partner food rather than for casual sipping."
-WineOrbit.co.nz, Sam Kim, March 2010
Video Review by Sam Scarpari:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXgvgObSFCI
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