Mahi Boundary Farm Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc 2019

Mahi Boundary Farm Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc 2019French oak Barrel fermented Rich & textural Well rounded The influence of wild yeast, vineyard site, barrel ferment and time on lees makes for a rich and textural style of Sauvignon Blanc. Eleven months in French barriques has given this wine a well rounded textural palate while still retaining freshness at the back of the palate. The 2019 vintage proved to be our earliest finish ever, which also fits in with our earliest start by five days, starting

• French oak
• Barrel-fermented
• Rich & textural
• Well-rounded

The influence of wild yeast, vineyard site, barrel-ferment and time on lees makes for a rich and textural style of Sauvignon Blanc. Eleven months in French barriques has given this wine a well-rounded textural palate while still retaining freshness at the back of the palate.

The 2019 vintage proved to be our earliest finish ever, which also fits in with our earliest start by five days, starting on March 7th. Strangely enough, although it was our earliest vintage it was definitely not our warmest. I personally believe, however, that I will remember this harvest as one of our best, with excellent fruit quality and ideal weather conditions. This vintage can be defined by a number of characteristics, starting with lower rainfall. From Christmas Day until the end of harvest and overall, we received only 75% of our normal rain through the entire growing period. We also saw smaller berries, especially in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also in Sauvignon. Pinot was hit very hard, and we were down nearly 50% but also the Sauvignon berries were about 30% smaller than last year. With no rain there was hardly any Botrytis inoculum around and the fruit was the cleanest we have seen in a number of years. This was also helped by the warmer days, especially since the start of January where the deviation from average growing degree days really kicked in.

This wine comes from a small hillside parcel on the southeast boundary of the township of Blenheim. The vineyard is run by Perry and Stephanie Gilbert, who also live on the property, ensuring great attention to detail. The north-facing aspect means that the grapes receive as much sunshine hours as possible helping them to ripen well and are often some of the earlier grapes of our vintage. The soil structure has a higher percentage of clay, which we have found gives extra weight and interest to the palate, adding texture and suppleness to the wine. The grapes were hand-picked, whole-cluster pressed and taken straight to French barriques without any chemical additions. It was fermented with indigenous yeast in the barrels, helping to add complexity and texture, without dominating the nose. The wine was left on yeast lees for eleven months, which were stirred regularly. This meant that the yeast added both savoury notes and served to work as a natural fining agent. After time in barrique it was gently racked then bottled without fining.

Mahi, meaning ‘our work, our craft’, began in 2001, fulfilling a dream of ours. After 15 vintages it was time to do our own thing. With a strong focus on single-vineyard wines, and now backed up by a series of premium regional wines from Marlborough, the idea behind Mahi is to respect and promote the individuality of the various vineyards. The Mahi symbol represents the strength, life, and growth of the native New Zealand frond (fern), with the understanding that wine should never be rushed to bottle, respecting its ability to evolve naturally over time.