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Wine Description
The Story
The iconic wine behind the Cloudy Bay tale
Established in 1985, Cloudy Bay was one of the first five wine makers to venture into Marlborough. At the time, it was almost an unimaginable place to set-up a vineyard. But Cloudy Bay’s founder - David Hohnen - was convinced of its potential to produce great wine and invested in the best land of the region. Since then, Marlborough has risen to become New Zealand’s leading wine region, as well as one of the finest winemaking locations in the world.
The winery was named after Cloudy Bay, a body of water explorer Captain James Cook came across during his voyage to New Zealand in 1770. His discovery coincided with flooding in the region, which washed large amounts of sediment into the sea. Noticing the water’s opaque appearance, Cook cleverly christened the area Cloudy Bay.
Today, Cloudy Bay not only captures the essence of Marlborough but also embodies New Zealand's luxury to the world. The luxury of space and time, of intimate moments and nature’s rarest qualities.
Defined New Zealand's wine and established the Marlborough wine region globally.
Following the harvest, the free-run juice was cold-settled for 48-72 hours before racking. Fermentation was carried out primarily in stainless steel tanks, with approximately 7% of the blend fermented at warmer temperatures in old French oak barriques and large format vats. As usual, our Sauvignon Blanc was blended stringently to include only the best portions.
Wine Information
Current Tasting Notes
Our 2012 Sauvignon Blanc shows lifted notes of elderflower, green lime zest, and stone fruit. The palate is ripe, fine and succulent, offering zesty ripe citrus flavours coupled with an edge of minerality and sweet herbs. A small barrel ferment component gives balancing flesh to the wine’s crisp refreshing acidity. A classic wine from an outstanding season.
Vineyard Notes
Grapes were sourced from estate and grower vineyards located in the Rapaura, Fairhall, Renwick and Brancott sub-regions of the Wairau Valley. Free draining, stony soils typify the Rapaura and Renwick areas whilst Fairhall and Brancott are predominantly aged alluvial loams containing some clay. The majority of fruit was grown on a vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trellis with three canes laid down. In 2012, average sauvignon blanc yields were 7 tonnes/hectare.
Production Notes
Our Sauvignon Blanc harvest commenced on the 14th of March under cool, yet settled Autumn conditions. Consistent with years past the first fruit was harvested from the stonier, young river bed soils in the Rapaura and Renwick subregions. Our Sauvignon Blanc harvest was quick and compact, lasting only three weeks, meaning all fruit had a long “hang-time” resulting in excellent flavour development. The final block was harvested on the 2nd of May. Despite the cool season, naturally low yields ensured that all fruit was harvested with excellent physiological maturity and ripeness, producing fruit with outstanding flavour and balance. The 2012 harvest was down by 25%.
Winemaker Notes
Fruit was harvested over a range of 21.9 to 23.8 Bx during the cool of the night and early morning. Free-run and lightly pressed juice was cold settled for 48-96 hours, before racking over a range of low to high turbidities. Fermentation was primarily carried out in stainless steel, however consistent with the last two years and some of the early Cloudy Bay vintages, a small percentage was fermented at warmer temperatures in old French oak barriques. Despite lower than target yields, the wine was stringently blended, including only the strongest 54 batches from a total of 69 distinct parcels.
