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Following on from last week’s discussion surrounding my ‘wine revelation’  – a 13-year old NZ Sauvignon Blanc, I contacted Alastair Maling MW for his thoughts on the wonderful experience we had. Here are his comments on Villa Maria’s Sauvignon Blanc and ageing Sauvignon in general. Some really interesting comments as follows – Cheers, Tracey.

“Great to hear that you’ve had an enlightening experience with an older vintage SB and delighted that you’ve e mailed me about it.
 
The ageing potential of the Villa SB’s is an interesting concept because very little SB is kept back and therefore one doesn’t really know what its true potential is. In general I’d say (and I have no evidence to prove it) that the SB’s of the late 1990′s, early 2000′s probably have more ageing potential than the wines of today simply because we seem to be under more pressure to get these wines ready and onto the market sooner now than what we did back then. What this means is less time on lees and the chance to develop real texture and character to the wine.
 
Balancing that is probably our winemaking has got better over time.
 
From Villa’s perspective the Reserve Wairau 97 has fruit coming from the Wairau Valley which essentially encompasses the area around Blenheim. It had a small portion of barrel ferment – around 5%. The fruit also was picked a bit riper than what we currently do – around 23 Brix in those days whereas now it is more like 21.5 – 22 brix. Handling of the fruit would have been similar as would the ferment regime. The wine was probably left on lees until around October.
 
Again as a generalisation, I think there is better ageing potential for the wines that come from the Wairau & Lower Wairau areas than the wines from the Awatere. The wines from the Awatere typically have the pea shell, capsicum, tomato leaf notes, are very fine and tight and, with some age, perhaps develop less attractive characteristics compared to the Wairau which would have more of the tropical fruit, passionfruit characters with more weight and typically more texture. Its these characters that benefit from time and we see a complex style of SB developing.
 
The oldest SB I’ve tried is probably around 9 – 10 years old that was in decent condition. The better ones showed very little oily character or honeyed notes which can develop in SB over time.
 
These premium SB wines will age however they probably need to be consumed with food and also the consumers need to be prepared for something that is not your typical SB. We’re seeing some move in style to wines with texture, weight, less fruit, some oak, more time on lees and the use of natural ferment and these wines will definitely show the benefit of time. For those that like a less overt SB it is possibly a natural direction to head”.
 
Regards,
Alastair