A delightful fusion of ripe summer fruit and delicate floral perfume – Golden Queen peaches and poached yellow pears; baked apples, mango and rock melon; mingled with apple blossom fragrance and a twist of lemon sherbet. Succulent and crisp, with a delicate fennel-like herbal quality and a dry, textural palate. Quintessentially Marlborough, but a deliciously subtle, ripe interpretation of the classic style.

Greywacke was created in 2009 by Kevin Judd, chief winemaker at Cloudy Bay from its inception for 25 years and instrumental in the international recognition which Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc enjoys now. The name 'Greywacke' was adopted by Kevin for his first Marlborough vineyard located in Rapaura in recognition of the high prevalence of rounded greywacke river stones in the soils of the vineyard, a sedimentary rock which is widely found in Marlborough. Kevin Judd is also New Zealand's finest wine photographer and has recently published a book 'The Landscape of New Zealand Wine'.

Fruit was sourced from prime vineyards in Marlborough’s Southern Valleys and the central Wairau Plains (specifically Woodbourne, Renwick and Rapaura). Soil types vary from the young alluvial soils of Rapaura and Renwick, which contain high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones, to the older and denser clay-loams of the Southern Valleys. Most of the vineyards were trained using the divided Scott Henry canopy management system, with the balance on a two- or three-cane vertical shoot positioning trellis.

Harvested largely by machine during cool (often cold) night-time conditions, the sauvignon blanc grapes were trucked to our winery in the Omaka Valley, where they were lightly pressed to yield a modest volume of high-quality juice. The juice was cold-settled and racked prior to fermentation, which was primarily carried out in stainless steel tanks with cultured yeast. A portion of the juice was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation in old oak barrels.

All individual vineyard batches were left on lees and kept separate until late June, when the blend was assembled. The wine was bottled in mid-August with alcohol 14.0%, pH 3.16 and acidity 6.8 g/l.