Tohu Awatere Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022

Tohu Awatere Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022Dry style Citrus zest Green apple Lively finish "Wonderfully ripe and gorgeously aromatic, the wine shows passionfruit, sweet basil, kiwifruit and lime zest aromas, leading to an intensely flavoursome palate that's succulent and lively. Beautifully structured by bright acidity, finishing long and delectable. At its best: now to 2025" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec 2022 Sourced entirely from vineyards located in Southern Marlboroughs spectacular Awatere

• Dry style
• Citrus zest
• Green apple
• Lively finish

"Wonderfully ripe and gorgeously aromatic, the wine shows passionfruit, sweet basil, kiwifruit and lime zest aromas, leading to an intensely flavoursome palate that's succulent and lively. Beautifully structured by bright acidity, finishing long and delectable. At its best: now to 2025" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Dec 2022

Sourced entirely from vineyards located in Southern Marlborough’s spectacular Awatere Valley, this vibrant wine displays aromas of citrus zest and vibrant tropical fruit with notes of fresh spring herbs complemented with hints of orange blossom and lemongrass. The palate is layered with flavours of juicy ripe lemon and lime, sweet fresh pineapple and crunchy green apple. This seamless wine has outstanding fruit concentration and a zesty underlying minerality that leads to a pure, lively and focused dry finish.

Grapes from this wine are sourced from four different vineyards located throughout the Awatere Valley. The Awatere is cooler, drier and windier than other sub-regions of Marlborough, with an overall longer and cooler growing season. These climatic factors combined with vineyards located on young, fertile river terraces result in distinctive wines with a mineral drive and fruit forward flavours.

A warm start to the 2021/2022 growing season provided excellent flowering and fruit-set conditions, with resulting fruit levels well above average. Warm, dry conditions over January quickly advanced the ripeness of the large crops, however unusually cool and wet weather in February slowed ripening considerably. Clear but cool conditions prevailed in the Awatere Valley from late February through to the end of March, allowing the fruit to gain concentrated fruit flavours without drastic drops in acidity or succumbing to disease pressure. Harvest for this wine began on the 25th March with all the grapes picked by the 9th April.

Select blocks from around the Awatere Valley are harvested using modern machine harvesters that allow ultimate extraction of flavour and aroma compounds from the skins of the grapes. Once at the winery the grapes are pressed into stainless steel tanks for cold settling, before being gently racked and inoculated with yeasts chosen to naturally enhance the aromatic and flavour profiles of the wine. Fermentation is carried out at cool temperatures allowing the wine to retain its bright aromas; with each batch fermentation typically lasting around 21 days. After fermentation is complete the wines are left to settle on their yeast lees for a short period before being racked again into stainless steel tanks for maturation. Meticulous classification of each batch results in a final blend that truly captures the exceptional characteristics of the vineyards. Once blended the resulting wine is stabilised and filtered without the need for fining, ready for bottling in early July 2022.