One Tree Marlborough Sauv Blanc 2009
Some people say it’s hard to finish up work and then take a break for whatever amount of time for whatever reason…. I beg to differ.
Today I officially began to enjoy the start of my ‘indefinite travelling’. I am 2 weeks away from leaving the UAE and I have officially packed up my fine wine work and now I am officially in the ‘unemployed’ basket. Most people’s reactions can be grouped into one of the following;
1. ‘That is so scary to be unemployed’ – yeah if you call Thursday lunch of salad & Sauv Blanc to be ‘scary’, I agree.
2. ‘So what job are you going to?’ and my answer is ‘no job, just travelling and we will see what we come across’ – after which I get looked at in a strange way like I should be institutionalized.
3. ‘So back to New Zealand ay’ – Ummm I love NZ and miss my family but there is a HUGE world our there and plenty of wine waiting for me to discover, so no – or rather ‘not right now’.
So today after my 23km run (crazy I know) I decided what the heck and let’s start the weekend a few hours early. So I got home and made myself a delish ‘whatever is in the fridge’ salad consisting of lettuce, cheese, carrot, olives, walnuts and cranberry jelly.
But there was something missing, and you would have to call me a liar if I wasn’t thinking about this through that whole 23km’s – a bottle of perfectly chilled New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Over here in Dubai the selection of Kiwi wines is pretty minimal, and what they do have comes with a hefty price tag. However I found a gem the other night – One Tree Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Marlborough. Not knowing much about the vineyard I thought at a 40 AED price tag the boy can’t disagree!
So after a bit of googling after I got home I realized that the director is Kiwi Steve Smith – Master of Wine. Now this guy is not to go unnoticed as in 1996 when he became an MW he was the only specialist viticulturist in the world to have this academic accolade.
But really when it comes down to it, does the consumer prefer a big name behind a wine or the actual way the wine caresses the mouth? I opt for the latter. So I cracked into this bottle in celebration of my new ‘Lady of Leisure’ title – and what do you know my taste buds were in ecstasy.
It’s not a complex Sauvignon Blanc at all; it’s not in your face however it is not shy either. It carries itself with confidence and suave. You have your typical notes of passionfruit, apples and herby grass coming through which then leads into notes distinctly of grapefruit to finish. This grapefruit finish I couldn’t decide if it was good or not – it definitely left my mouth salivating from the touch of bitterness, however I’m not big on bitter things. This conundrum was soon resolved when I started on my salad, and viola the cranberry jelly, walnuts, etc killed off the bitterness while still retaining that fresh fruit and summer flavours. Perfect combo!
This wine for me gets top scores for value for money. Why did I only buy one bottle??