Recommendation: Simply a GREAT New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Winery/Producer: Cloudy Bay Vineyards; Blenheim, New Zealand.
Grape Variety: Sauvignon Blanc.
Geographic Region, Appellation: Marlborough; South Island, New Zealand.
Vintage: 2014
Price: $36.99 (NZ$) about $27.74 (US$) plus a $20 corking fee.
Purchased From: Glengarry Wines, City Store; Auckland, New Zealand.
Paired With: (Lunch) French onion soup. Crab cakes with sweet cucumber salsa and brown rice.
Tasting:
He said: Chilled before drinking. Clear, almost colorless with just a tiny bit of light wheat straw color. Strong gooseberry and fresh cut asparagus aromas. Exuberant “New World” Sauvignon Blanc taste with a long crisp acidic finish. It’s a WOW, what a zesty New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc…smooth, but strong flavors and strong crisp acidic finish. There is a good reason Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc is held up as “the” classic New Zealand wine. It’s simply a GREAT New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. And, yes there really is a little cat pee in the bouquet!!
She said: Clear with well spaced sluggish legs. Intense gooseberry and cut grass aroma follows through into a strong crisp taste. Good body, and feel on the palate plus delicious smoothness leads to a long finish with a gooseberry flavor. The wine is very strongly flavored and overwhelmed the crab cakes (the soup too but I had no expectations). This wine is the quintessential New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with its strong gooseberry aroma and flavor. Not great with the crab cakes, it was still a very excellent wine and we have to have another bottle and try it with a better pairing.
Comments: Purchased from an Auckland, New Zealand wine shop and consumed in the Britannia Restaurant on board the Cunard Queen Mary 2; however we also purchased it from the Queen Mary 2 wine list for $60.00.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Bar code: 9 418408 030016
Imported by: NA