This was a wine I first tried (and loved) at the winery in Dec. 2001, revisited at a dinner on a recent vacation: Color: Deep golden yellow Nose: iodine, grass, apricot Palate: Initially, impressions of seaweed/iodine, giving way to moderate grassiness and prominent flavors of melon and apricot and a clean, lightly crisp finish. With braised scallops in a garlic/mushroom sauce, the wine took on more overtly grassy flavors; with BBQ shrimp in mild jerk seasonings, the fruit of the wine was prominent. [Both food/wine matches received a 4 on the Hoare scale]
This wine is an atypical Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc -- barrel aged and quite lean in its youth, it is built for age and is now showing beautifully. Even my wife, who generally dislikes aged white wines, found this wine to her liking. She in fact compared it to a white Bordeaux, though I personally find it more akin to the Sauvignons of the Loire Valley. In either case, this wine is highly recommended for those who are looking for a NZ SB with more restraint and aging potential.
Mark Lipton