Maven Wines of New Zealand

"Maven" - noun - a person with special knowledge or experience; one who is dazzingly skilled in any field; an expert.

The Cravens Road vineyard, in Marlborough, occupies an extremely picturesque site backed by the Richmond Range, with the Wairau River just 200m from the vines. Cravens Creek winds through the vineyard and is an obvious feature. One characteristic is its relative uniformity: its deep silt loam soils, with moderate to high fertility and good water-holding capacity, promote greater consistency in fruit development and maturation.

Due to its uniformity the block was planted in a North/South row orientation to maximise sun exposure using close vine spacings (2.4m rows x 1.8m vines) to reduce the yield per vine (thereby increasing the quality of the fruit). The entire vineyard was hand-planted over a 10-week period in the summer of 2003 resulting in the first small harvest of 2005.

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Maven Sauvignon Blanc 2007

Ref: nz550

Price: £14.95 inc VAT

Quantity:

This premium Sauvignon Blanc by Maven is a single-vineyard wine grown exclusively in their estate vineyard near the stony banks of Marlborough's Wairau River. Maven separated the main block into a number of zones and varied the amount of leaf plucking in each. This directly affects the fruit's flavour and composition, with more exposure to the Marlborough sun leading to riper, more tropical flavours.

A riper component, hand-picked separately, was then fermented using wild yeasts (in seasoned French barriques). Wild or natural fermentation involves leaving the juice to commence fermentation on its own without the aid of cultured yeasts. This is invariably slower, but allows the wine to develop to its natural potential and the result tends to be more complex and richly textured. By picking separate parcels of the Sauvignon over a 3-week period we were able to capture a wider spectrum of flavour and aromas. A greener component was cool fermented in stainless steel at very low temperatures to retain its crisp, vibrant freshness and that unmistakeable Marlborough zing.

Lifted aromas of passionfruit and gooseberry abound. A vibrant, lively wine, this Maven Sauvignon Blanc balances the freshness of melon and lime with rich, ripe tropical fruit on the palate and a lingering finish. Subtle use of seasoned French oak casks on a portion of the blend has added further weight and complexity.

Please note the labels feature different scences from around the vineyard and may differ from the image shown.