Cloudy Bay - Sauvignon Blanc 2020
Cloudy Bay Vineyards is located in the South Island of New-Zealand. The winery has four estate vineyards in the Wairau Valley subregion of Marlborough and Central Otago, and buys fruit from nine other Wairau vineyards. It was established by David Hohnen in 1985 who was one of the first five winemakers to venture into Marlborough. The winery was named after Cloudy Bay, a body of water explorer Captain James Cook came across during his voyage to New Zealand in 1770. His discovery coincided with flooding in the region, which washed large amounts of sediment into the sea. Noticing the water’s opaque appearance, Cook cleverly christened the area Cloudy Bay. In 1990, Hohnen sold Cloudy Bay to Veuve Clicquot but stayed on in charge of its operations. He finally left in 2003, after Veuve Clicquot was bought by the multinational luxury group LVMH.
The Sauvignon Blanc is the iconic wine of Cloudy Bay. The 2020 harvest was completed under the unprecedented conditions of a New Zealand-wide lock-down due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Following the harvest, the free-run juice was cold settled, before racking and inoculation with selected yeast. Fermentation was carried out primarily in stainless steel tanks, with approximately 4% of the blend fermented at warmer temperatures in old French oak barriques and large format oak vats.
Grape variety: 100% Sauvignon Blanc