The success of its sauvignon blanc has eclipsed New Zealand’s excellent chardonnay
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Evocative: vineyards in the Marlborough area, top, where Cloudy Bay's famous sauvignon blanc and pinot noir are grown Photo: CEPHAS / KEVIN JUDD / ALAMY |
It always strikes me as unfair that such a fuss has been made about Cloudy Bay’s sauvignon blanc when it’s far from being its best wine. Ask anyone who knows the wines, including those who work in the industry (as long as your tape recorder is switched off) and nine out of 10 will say that they much prefer the chardonnay. I certainly do; it’s a lovely wine, bright and open and scented like fresh lemons and white blossom with a gentle lilt of pannacotta.
Victoria Moore
We hardly ever talk about New Zealand chardonnay yet a decade ago it was the country’s most widely planted grape. As recently as 2001 there were 3,303 hectares of chardonnay growing across the North and South islands compared to just 2,843 of sauvignon blanc and 1,491 of pinot noir.
Now, New Zealand’s pinot noir has earned itself a serious reputation. Its aromatic white varieties are spoken of with excitement, we hear an awful lot about Kiwi syrah even though there’s barely any of it, and of course thanks to the “savalanche” that has seen practically every square foot of Marlborough disappear under fronds of vivid green vine, plantings of sauvignon blanc have increased almost sixfold.
Chardonnay, meanwhile, has grown gently — and all too quietly.
I suspect part of the reason for the quiet bit is a general chardonnay-malaise. It may also be that New Zealand keeps most of it to itself, drinking more than three quarters of its chardonnay production.