Dive into Marlborough

Our Wine Director, Luke has been galivanting through the vines of Marlborough, New Zealand, his old stomping grounds, for the past couple of weeks, so we wanted to share some insight into the region that is often looked at as a monolith, its anything but!

First, where exactly is New Zealand, and Marlborough within it? People often think that New Zealand is close to Australia, and it is relatively, however New Zealand lies about 1000 miles to the southeast of Australia, that’s about the distance from Indy to Denver. Further, New Zealand is made up of two main islands, the North Island and the South Island (creative!), Marlborough lies on the north end of the South Island. There’s a map below to help!

For a longtime Marlborough was seen as basically just one region with no subregions or anything that really separates one parcel from another. Today it is easy to see that is not the case! We’ll be exploring three main regions and what sets them apart.

First, we’ll look at the Wairau valley. This is the area that winemaking really starting in Marlborough, today it is the true home of Marlborough Sauv Blanc, with some of the areas oldest, and arguably best vineyards. The Wairau Valley is set between the Wairau River to the north and roughly the Wairau Fault Line to the south. This wedge of land between the river and the fault line is known for a soil type called Greywacke, these soils are chucked full of river stone that Sauv Blanc loves. Some even believe that many Sauv Blancs from the region, especially those closer to the river, exhibit a minerally, river stone kind of character.

South of the fault line, but north of the Wither Hills there is an area now known as the Southern Valleys. Being on the the other side of the fault line means that you have a different soil, here we see a lot more clay-based soils. Well, one grape that loves clay soils is Pinot Noir, combine that with the north facing (meaning more sunlight) and you’ve got a perfect spot for the grape. While there is certainly plenty of Sauv Blanc still planted here, expect to see more and more Pinot!

Finally, we come to the newest sub region, the Awatere Valley, on the southside of the Wither Hills, it is a much less developed and untouched part of Marlborough. The area is known for making Sauv Blancs that show off a tropical and somewhat wild side of the grape. There is also experimentation with other aromatic white wines here, so look out for new and interesting wines in the coming years!

Marlborough is still young as a wine region, so its subregions are just starting to come into their own. Stop by this week’s tasting and Luke will be happy to tell you all about them!