Blank Canvas Abstract Three Rows Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Blank Canvas Abstract Three Rows Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2019"(Three Rows) From the Dillons Point sub region. Fermented and aged for 14 months in five year old French oak puncheons. This wine stands out in a crowd of sauvignons. For a start it has a rich, mouth filling texture and real depth of fruit with a mouth watering savouriness. Don't quaff it, savour it. This is serious sauvignon" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Jun 2022 "Complex and new, modern and enticing bouquet of lemon curd and lees

"(Three Rows) From the Dillons Point sub-region. Fermented and aged for 14 months in five-year-old French oak puncheons. This wine stands out in a crowd ... of sauvignons. For a start it has a rich, mouth-filling texture and real depth of fruit with a mouth-watering savouriness. Don't quaff it, savour it. This is serious sauvignon" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Jun 2022

"Complex and new, modern and enticing bouquet of lemon curd and lees spices, fresh peach and quince, there’s a natural soil smoky quality with a fine dried herb and natural varietal lift. Delicious with flavours of yellow apple and lemon, quince and peach stone, an orange barley sugar quality with mineral and floral herb tones. Acidity and soft saline qualities add crunch and texture while the core fruit flavours fill the mid palate and add lengthy as well as complexity. Delicious, fresh and complex. Best drinking from 2022 through 2029" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Jul 2022

If classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is all fruit and zing, Abstract exists in another dimentsion altogether. It's our 'Savoury Blanc', where texture and aromatic complexity bedazzle, and where vineyard and winemaking contribute equally. Just three rows od a dry-farmed parcel are handpicked from the Holdaway Vineyard in Dillons Points. There's an intense and seductive perfume of blackcurrant and white florals, while winemaking lends savouriness and flinty minerality. Wild fermented in seasoned texture. With elegance and beautiful balance, it is for enjoyment now but will age with grace and dignity.

2019 was one of the driest vintages on record and for many in the region one of the lowest cropping. Sauvignon Blanc in Dillons Pointfound itself in a good position with ready access to water and deep, silt-rich soils maintaining ground moisture. For those who managed the yield appropriately the balance between vine health and fruit quality was exemplary. The Holdaways sow diverse cover crops which are then harvested to the ground to maintain soil moisture, alleviating the pressure from the long dry spell. The resulting healthy canopies meant the fruit developed plenty of intense passionfruit and blackcurrant characters alongside the trademark Dillons Point saltiness.

The Holdaway vineyard is in the Dillons Point sub-region on the coastal fringe of the Wairau Valley. The vineyard is owned by the Holdaway family who have been farming in Marlborough for generations. Alan and Janette and their sons Richard and Robbie practice regenerative viticulture; prioritising soil health through composting, growing impressive inter-row mixed species plantings to increase organic matter in the soil and a zero-til policy. The Abstract Sauvignon Blanc three row parcel is dry-farmed, a relatively rare practice in Marlborough. The vineyard is VSP-trained and cane-pruned.

The grapes were selectivey hand-harvest on 27th March. We gently whole-bunch the fruit with the free run juice only going to three to five-year-old French oak puncheons (500L). The wine was left to ferment naturally with wild yeasts and with full solids. We did not stir the barrels at all throughout their time in oak, and this vintage went through natural malolactic fermentation. Maturation on lees took place over 14 months before it was bottled without filtration on 14th July 2020.