Re: Change in NZ Sauvignon Blanc?
Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:14 am
I see that Monkey Bay Marlborough Sauvignon 2006 has just picked up a gold medal at this year's San Francisco International Wine Competition.
Premier nous sommes, WLDG ne change
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Sue Courtney wrote:I see that Monkey Bay Marlborough Sauvignon 2006 has just picked up a gold medal at this year's San Francisco International Wine Competition.
Joe Cz wrote:
I think the trend is just towards greater stratification.{snip} St. Clair has their Vicar's Choice at the bottom of their heirarchy, then the regular, the reserve and the single-block wines.
Dale Williams wrote:Joe Cz wrote:
I think the trend is just towards greater stratification.{snip} St. Clair has their Vicar's Choice at the bottom of their heirarchy, then the regular, the reserve and the single-block wines.
Joe, good to see you here.
Has St Clair always had these ...er...strata? I'm always curious re something I have seen elsewhere, one wines becoming several. If St Clair started off with one wine (or one "regular" and a reserve), and then added some single blocks, how much did the basic wine suffer? Did they add the Vicar's Choice (then basically a 2nd), and did that counter the loss of their best lots? Or is this all negociant type bottlings and that doesn't matter?
I don't know so much about NZ. But certainly in the Rhone there have been places with a bit of a pattern:
1) many growers historically sold to negociants
2) some of them started bottling own wines, and maybe some of the negociant wines suffered.
3) those bottling there own wines in some cases made very very good wines.
4) As the rep of those growers making own wines grew, some started bottling their best parcels separately.
5) while those luxury cuvees might be too oaky for some, the question is how much did the regular cuvee suffer from lost of the best parcels?
michael dietrich wrote:I think that Saint Clair has done a great job with most all their wines. The Vicars is their value price point wine. It is kind of like intro level for consumers. As people like those wines then they will spend a little more to try their Marlborough wines. There are lots of similar models all over the wine world.