I teach about wine – a lot! When teaching the more formal courses, I (and my fellow teachers) would always teach that some grape varieties age gracefully and other not.
Sauvignon Blanc fits into the second category. For the most part, the beautiful passionfruit, citrus and other tropical aromas and flavours age to be asparagus, tinned peas and other over-cooked greens. Not that pleasant to drink.
Every so often a wine comes past that breaks the mould. Urlar 2013 Sauvignon Blanc is one of those! A 6 year old Sauvignon Blanc!
Forewarning! If you are a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc devotee, this wine is probably not for you. (Or it might be if you want to try something different?? J??)
What does it taste like? At first, there are floral aromas and patchouli. As the wine opens up the aromas seem to see-saw between lemon, grapefruit and pineapple to herbal, snow pea, resin and mineral notes. This is a seriously interesting wine!
If you love acid – you will like this wine. The acid is holding onto the grapefruit flavours. This is intermingled with the texture derived from some time in oak makes for a really interesting finish and mouthfeel.
Urlar means ‘Earth’ in Gaelic. The vineyard is on the north island of New Zealand, about 1.5 hours’ drive northeast of Wellington. About 30 minutes’ drive from the more famous Martinborough region, this area has small vineyards dotted throughout it. It is slightly cooler than Marlborough where most of the Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand is planted.
You might struggle to find the 2013 Urlar Sauvignon Blanc but there are some small quantities of the 2015. It will grow to become a similar wine to the 2013. At $23 It is a bargain.
Oh – and I forgot to mention that it is certified organic as well! www.urlar.co.nz
4.5/5 but it will polarise people J
