Double wine highlights from a few New Zealand Legends.
By Dan Orton
Starting at Dog Point, Ivan and James previously worked at Cloudy Bay together but found they had similar ideas on how to produce wine so they started Dog Point. They both have experience travelling in Burgundy, during this time they both liked the low intervention and hands off wine making style. This is the main ethos of Dog Point, The vineyard was planted during the 1980s. Ivan and James started to convert the vineyard to organic farming in 2009 and a large part of this regeneration of the soil is by having 2500 sheep living on the vineyard, during the winter months.
We have three of their wines at Butlers and the pick for me is the Chardonnay, going against the grain for Marlborough and producing a more Meursault style with an abundance of flint and toasty notes, this is a great option for a burgundy lover.
Dog Point, Sauvignon Blanc 2017
Next up Greywacke, Kevin Judd the winemaker as you might have guessed worked at Cloudy Bay, he was actually the founding winemaker of the winery. Kevin left Cloudy Bay in 2009 to start Greywacke. Knowing the team at Dog Point, Kevin makes his wines at their winery. The name comes from the iconic rounded river stones found in the local area, Kevin and his wife came up with the name in the early 90s knowing they wanted to start their own winery one day, they actually trademarked the name in 1993.
At Butlers we have 2 different Sauvignons, and also a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay. Cloudy Bay is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc and so it's no surprise that I'm going to highlight this for my wine pick. The one I think is worth a go is the Wild Sauvignon, this is where Kevin does things a little bit differently in the winery, he does a light press on the grapes then racks straight into oak barrels. Next he leaves the wine to ferment on its own using indigenous yeast. This is the wild element to the wine. This process creates an interesting tasting notes like spice, flint and honey suckle and lemon zest.
Greywacke, Wild Sauvignon 2016 *
Greywacke, Sauvignon Blanc 2018
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