Champion Wine of the Show a taste of Marlborough’s southern coast

Yealands Wines was the winner of the 2024 Marlborough Wine Show, Sponsored by QuayConnect, walking away with four trophies for their Yealands Estate Single Block L5 Sauvignon Blanc 2024.

Senior Winemaker and Winery Manager Anthony Walkenhorst and his team had some big competition at the show this year, with Marlborough’s flagship wine making a big splash across the board.

Despite the strong competition, the wine was crowned QuayConnect Champion Wine of the Show, The Coterie Wine of Provenance, Circuit Logistics Champion Awatere and South Marlborough Wine, and WineWorks Champion Sauvignon Blanc, Current Vintage for 2024.

Anthony shared some insights into the wine, and what made this vintage so good…

Yealands Estate Single Block L5 Sauvignon Blanc 2024 won four trophies at the 2024 Marlborough Wine Show, including champion of the show. How did that feel, and were you expecting the wine to receive such amazing results?

It was an amazing result for our Single Block L5 Sauvignon Blanc to pick up so many trophies and Wine of the Show - especially as the competition was so strong this year across the producers and varieties within Marlborough.

Having recently held a tasting of around 30+ 2024 Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs as a team, we knew our wine was great, but we tasted so many other good wines from across the region so knew it was going to be tough to stand out in shows. Being recognised by the Marlborough Industry for producing the best wine of 2024 is a huge achievement for the team.

What made this vintage so good?

Last summer was very dry, with drought conditions in Marlborough resulting in lower yields, but intense flavours. The dry conditions continued throughout March, and we were harvesting at the earliest time I’ve ever experienced here. The biggest challenge for this vintage was to quickly harvest the grapes and pick at the correct ripeness and flavour development.

If you’re too slow, you lose that flavour intensity.

At Yealands, we’re lucky to have a great harvesting team and a winery that can handle the fruit coming in fast.

Can you tell us a bit about the unique sub-regional taste characteristics that make up this wine? What are the elements of the environment that influence those characteristics?

The Single Block L5 comes from our Seaview vineyard – a truly special place that produces amazing Sauvignon Blanc. We’re right on the coast out in the Awatere so the vines are exposed to some extreme weather conditions. The strong winds do help keep disease pressure down though, and produce thick skins in the grapes which helps with increasing flavour.

The particular block our L5 is from is very coastal and cool, producing lime leaf, jalapeño skin and snow pea aromatics with flavours of fresh lime and herbs and salty mineral finish.

How does this wine express its place? Can you tell us a bit about the vineyard/growers, winemakers behind this wine?

Out of our entire range, this wine is the one I think speaks most to its sense of place. When you’re in the L5 block, you’re right there on the coast and can pretty much taste the salt in the air. This salty minerality is a defining feature of the wine, along with a lovely, crushed oyster shell texture on the palate. It’s a wine that can really transport you to that coastal site.

The L5 block is on our Seaview Vineyard which is a company managed block headed up by our Viticulture Manager David Sheard.

The Winemaking team is led by Chief Winemaker Nat Christensen, who won White Winemaker of the Year at the 2023 International Wine Challenge.

About the sponsors

All four of these trophy sponsors are key players in the Marlborough wine industry. Get to know them a little better below.

QuayConnect (Champion Wine of the Show Trophy)

QuayConnect was founded in 2016 in response to a resounding call from the wine industry that smarter supply chain solutions were needed, cutting out waste and creating value for packaging and exporting wine. The company has become a key player in the industry, supporting many of the region’s wineries with transport and logistics. QuayConnect gives companies a smarter, more sustainable way to connect with their customers.

The Coterie (Wine of Provenance Trophy)
The Coterie is a hub for premium, certified organic contract winemaking; a winery built on transparency, innovation and collaboration. The Coterie is a space for winemakers to gather around the kitchen table to share ideas, innovate and apply these learnings to their own wines and winemaking practise. Their ethos is to question the way things have been done in the past, encouraging discussion, open minds, collaboration and confidence. They strive to lift quality in all we do and therefore the architecture of Marlborough wine as a whole.

Circuit Logistics (Champion Awatere and South Marlborough Wine Trophy)

Circuit Logistics was founded by Tanja Zurbruegg with a vision of transforming the liquid logistics industry. With a deep-seated passion for ISO tanks and a commitment to excellence, she has driven the company’s growth and innovation to become an industry leader in global bulk liquid and chemical logistics.

WineWorks (Champion Sauvignon Blanc, Current Vintage Trophy)

WineWorks offers wine bottling and warehousing services to New Zealand wineries. A key part of their strategy is to provide right-sized capacity to the industry, allowing their clients to easily scale up production, and thus to help drive their economies of scale.  With hubs here in Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, they offer wine transport, bottling, packaging, laboratory, warehousing & distribution, online services and certifications.