Appellation Marlborough Wine celebrate an outstanding 2020 vintage

A fantastic summer with hot days and cool nights has produced some outstanding Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs from the 2020 harvest.

Vibrant, bristling with energy and ripe concentrated flavours is how Marlborough’s winemakers are describing the wines – many of which are bottled and ready for release.

Appellation Marlborough Wine members say the season was one of the finest Marlborough had ever experienced with favourable weather throughout the growing, ripening and harvesting season.

Fruit quality from the vintage was the best winemaker Dave Clouston from Two Rivers had seen for more than 10 years. “It was outstanding,” he said. “A prolonged Indian summer with cool nights led to expressive wines with great natural acidity. The season produced pristine fruit with ripe concentrated flavours. We have never been more excited and more proud to release an Appellation Marlborough Wine. Our Two River Convergence Sauvignon Blanc has real potential.”

AMW, which now boasts 52 members representing more than a third of Marlborough wineries, was established in 2018 as a way of protecting Marlborough’s reputation and giving consumers confidence in the provenance of their wine. Choosing a Marlborough wine with the AMW logo means consumers are assured the wine is 100% Marlborough, grown sustainably and bottled in New Zealand.

Ivan Sutherland, owner of Dog Point Vineyards and chair of AMW, says the brand mark is now trademarked in all major wine consuming countries, with “very favourable support” from wine writers and the trade, “with the general comment being ‘why has it taken so long?’”.

Sauvignon Blanc is well established as one of the world’s most sought-after white wines.  Crucial factors for many Marlborough growers in the grape growing and wine making process are authenticity, integrity, sustainability and provenance – the four pillars represented by the AMW brand mark. 

AMW members praised the quality of this year’s vintage particularly given the challenges many of them worked through to get their crop harvested and processed.

The country went into lockdown just as harvest was starting which presented massive challenges with stringent Covid-19 rules in place including rigorous social distancing.  Wineries dealt with the situation admirably and the vintage will go down as one of the most extraordinary Marlborough has ever had. 

Jim White from Cloudy Bay said the 2020 vintage was memorable because of what wineries went through to make it happen and noteworthy as one of Cloudy Bay’s best vintages.

“Mother Nature gave us incredible conditions in the vineyards throughout the year and the fruit that came into the winery was as perfect as we could have wanted,” he said. “The Sauvignon Blanc shows a remarkable balance and refined acidity alongside the vibrant fruit qualities that we always want to see.”

Whitehaven’s chief winemaker Peter Jackson described the company’s Sauvignon Blancs as being “classical examples” thanks to a text book run into harvest with plenty of sunshine. “The resulting wines bristle with energy, purity and precision,” he said.

Nautilus Estate’s Clive Jones said classic Marlborough autumn weather of cool nights and warm days prevailed through harvest. “This allowed for slow flavour development and the ability to fine tune Sauvignon picking decisions to maximise flavour potential,” he said.

At Barkers Marque, Simon Barker said 2020 was one of the top two vintages since the company began in 2006 mainly due to the “fabulous run of weather”. “I’m excited at the prospect of this being one of our best vintages,” he said. “It is worth mentioning how well our industry complied and adapted (to Covid-19) during harvest which can be stressful at the best of times.”

AMW is excited about the release of their 2020 Sauvignon Blancs which promise to be some of the best and most vibrant to come out of Marlborough with zingy and zesty flavours that leap out of the glass.