Abstract Sauvignon Blanc 2018
Single Vineyard: Holdaway Vineyard
Subregion: Dillons Point
Region: Marlborough
Vintage: 2018
Soil Type: Young alluvial silts over sand
Clone: Mass selection
Viticulture: Dry-farmed and regenerative | New Zealand Sustainably Certified
Growers: Alan and Janette Holdaway and family
Vegan and vegetarian friendly.
Winemaker's Notes:
While the classic expression of this famous wine style is about fruit purity and crispness, this wine represents an alternative interpretation. ‘Abstract’ is a departure from the norm. This wine is all about texture and layers of aromatic complexity derived from both fruit and winemaking. The Holdaway family vineyard in Dillons Point provides the pillar of blackcurrant, passionfruit and its signature salty minerality, while the 100% wild yeast fermentation in seasoned French oak puncheons offers savoury attraction and complexity on the palate. Unfined and unfiltered.
Reviews:
18 Points (#1 NZ Sauvignon Blanc 2018) - "If the Holdaway Sauvignon was all about the fruit, with a little bit of winemaking, this is more about the winemaking but could not be built like this without that same fruit quality and intensity – as it opens there’s blackcurrant leaf and an almost hidden note of tropical fruit and richness. Marked struck-match, smoky, cordite first impression, but not excessive unless you don’t like this style. This is bold, fresh, with the start of some cedary development of bottle age. On the palate, the texture is rounded and deep, filling the mouth but still incredibly fresh. Long, mouth-watering, salty finish, and a promise of more bottle-aged complexity to come. Delicious now but no rush. Classy, complex, distinctive. For lovers of Sauvignon in the style of Dogpoint Section 94." Julia Harding MW JancisRobinson.com
96 Points - Outstanding "Immediately complex and enticing bouquet with aromas of the variety with a deep core of savoury complexity, lees and barrel ferment derived scents. Aromas of honeysuckle and grapefruit, some tropical fruit, wild flowers, sage and fresh herbs, hay and silty soil minerality. Fantastic on the palate with textures and flavours of complexity, variety, soil and palate tension - with amazing salty acidity, hold, release and finish. What’s not to like! Best drinking upon purchase and through 2028+." Cameron Douglas MS June 2021
95 Points & Wine of the Week / Top-Rank Wine “Made with 100% wild yeast fermentation in seasoned French oak puncheons followed by maturation in oak for 15 months. The wine retains its capsicum, passionfruit varietal identity that contrasts with nutty, ginger yeast lees character and subtle oyster-shell mineral flavour. A complex wine with a pleasing texture." Bob Campbell MW, Real Review. 04/11/2020
93 Points "The 2018 Sauvignon Blanc Abstract is a structured and pure expression. Only the free-run juice of these dry-farmed grapes is sent to puncheons, where natural fermentation takes place. Compared with the 2017, it's a little more flinty; the high-solids ferment has also imbued an almond meal note to the black currant fruit and grapefruit-like acidity. Ready for drinking, but there's no hurry. I found it also benefited from some aeration, so maybe pop it in a decanter before you get involved." Vinous | Rebecca Gibb MW "Desperately Seeking Sauvignon" March 2022
94 Points "From the Holdaway vineyard in Dillons Point, Marlborough, a Sauvignon Blanc in the fumé style – wild yeast, barrel ferment in seasoned oak – owing much to good white Bordeaux, and lots to like here for an ardent Chardonnay fan.
Pale, translucent lemon-green in the glass, with gorgeous almond, nectarine, pink grapefruit, blackcurrant and elderflower aromas. Mineral, saline and wet-stone, flinty characters precede a fine, taut palate of red apple, guava, greengage and preserved lemon. As much about a delicious savouriness as fruit; it is layered and balanced, whilst retaining a bright freshness and acidity.
Not typical for this varietal, there’s good weight, silken texture and a little toasty oak influence, that adds to the complexity and sets it in the top tier of NZ Sauvignons made in this style. To be a classic varietal, it has to age well, and this seems to have the structure and power to go a good distance. Character and flavour-packed, with a lengthy, drying finish." David Walker-Bell, WineFolio (NZ)
"Crafted from fruit dry-farmed by the Holdaway family in Marlborough’s Dillons Point sub-region, the ‘Abstract’ is about as far-removed from still-life sauvignon blanc as you can get. It’s like Rothko, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Miro all in one. 100% wild yeast fermented in old, French oak and aged for 14 months, it’s scented with bruised lemongrass, marzipan, dandelion and smoked passionfruit, and those characters then wash across the palate leaving a comet’s tail of quartzy, salty, minerality to finish. New Zealand’s newest Master of Wine Sophie Parker-Thomson and her husband Matt Thomson have created a stunning, super-complex sauvignon that screams out for steamed, garlicky Storm Shell clams drizzled with lemon. Drink now – 2026" Yvonne Lorkin (Sept 2021)
View Tasting Notes - 2018 | 2017 | 2016
