VILLA MARIA | Sauvignon Blanc | Marlborough | Private Bin | 2016
sauvignon blanc

WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.

Tonight we are going to review another sauvignon blanc wine – Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough Private Bin 2016 from Villa Maria. This is a single varietal sauvignon blanc wine made of grapes that were sourced from vineyards across the Marlborough region in the Wairau and Awatere valleys. And because it comes from New Zealand, the place where this variety is now a religion, what we have here is a classic sauvignon blanc wine, as classic as sauvignon blanc can be. The name ‘sauvignon blanc’ translates from french as ‘wild white’ and guess what  – this one is a wild beast indeed. What makes sauvignon blanc unique from other white varieties are its unique herbaceous flavors, like green bell pepper, gooseberry and fresh cut grass – these flavors come from aromatic compounds called pyrazines, but enough theory, let’s get straight to the tasting!
___________________________________________________________________________
Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Very clear straw-green color with green emerald hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with citrus fruits and herbal flavours: kiwi, lime, fresh cut grass, gooseberry, green pear, lemon, green pineapple, bergamot, hay, green melon, avocado, straw grass, green apple, turf, wormwood and some subtle hints of wetstone.

Gustatory
The wine is extra-dry, with moderate alcohol level, strong acidity and firm tannin. It feels tart, zesty and fresh, with a nuanced citrusy-herbal accent. This is a quite acrid, but velvety and elegant wine with very nuanced acidity. It has a fair overall balance and a quite complex palate, as it feels fine, lean and a bit robust, with a nuanced angularity on the mouthfeel.

Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and a balanced, crisp and tart aftertaste.
___________________________________________________________________________

This is definitely a great Wine of New Zealand and the overall rating says the same, with 91.3 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.

Conclusion: this is definitely a genuine, new world sauvignon blanc wine – crisp, elegant and citrusy-herbal – a wine in its prime form. Even though it can age for another 9 to 12 months due to its overwhelming acidity, our recommendation is to drink this wine as it is, as long as it is still young and beautiful. This wine can easily serve as an example of typicity for new world sauvignon blanc wines. For the best experience, try and pair this wine with creamy seafood dishes, like for example some creamy garlic butter tuscan shrimp or some pan seared scallops with bacon cream sauce, as those are some wine-and-food pairings that is impossible to forget. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

VILLA MARIA 
Sauvignon Blanc | Marlborough | Private Bin | 2016

grape: | sauvignon blanc |

region: New Zealand | Marlborough

overall rating: | 91.3 |

conclusion: great | a must try

___________________________________________________________________________
© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.