International Sauvignon Blanc Day on 3 May is an opportunity to recognise the contribution of the Marlborough viticulture industry, and to reflect on another year of excellence for this iconic varietal wine.

Wine Marlborough General Manager Marcus Pickens describes why Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has earned its place on the world stage.

“Marlborough-produced Sauvignon Blanc made a massive impact from the very first taste all those decades ago. It sort of shocked and surprised everyone with its intensity of aromas and flavours,” Marcus says.

Celebrated on the first Friday in May #SauvBlancDay is a global, social media wine tasting and opportunity to digitally connect wine lovers around the world with Marlborough. To find out how to get involved or find our toolkit please visit https://sauvignonblancday.co.nz/

Marlborough: Its long days of sunshine, crisp mornings, towering mountain ranges, meandering riverbeds and the sunken valleys of the Marlborough Sounds, glistening with crisp, emerald green waters.

If Marlborough came in a flavour there’s no doubt it would be Sauvignon Blanc, the wine that put the region on the map more than 30 years ago.

For Sauvignon Blanc lovers, the thought of putting their aromatic, fruity and uniquely Marlborough drop in oak can be intriguing and tantalising.

Pioneering Marlborough winemaker Kevin Judd has been using different styles with Sauvignon Blanc for years – fermenting it in oak barrels and using wild yeasts. Doing so provides a significant savouriness and a totally different mouthfeel from the classic crisp and clean Marlborough Sauvignon.

In the mid 1980s, the world’s eyes and palates were drawn to a maritime province at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, thanks to startling Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough’s Wairau Plains.

Thirty-five years on, those lean and stony river flats are covered in verdant wines, producing fresh, lively and aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. But they are increasingly rivalled by neighbouring subregions, including the Southern Valleys and Awatere Valley, each bringing a unique flavour profile to the ongoing story of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

The variety is the star of today and the star of the future, says viticulturist and wine research stalwart Dominic Pecchenino, who moved to Marlborough from the US in the early 1990s. “Marlborough owns Sauvignon Blanc – we own the style, no one else can do it.” There is no “secret clone”, he says. “The fruit develops at a time when the weather conditions are perfect.”

Leading British wine writer Oz Clarke clearly recalls the moment he discovered Sauvignon Blanc. “A wine that took the whole concept of green and expanded it, stretched it and pummelled it, and gloriously reinterpreted it on a riot of gooseberry and lime zest, green apples, green pepper, sliced through with an ice-cold knife of steel.”