Opawa Sauvignon Blanc

Pale straw colour with a faint greenish tinge around the edges and a watery hue. The bouquet shows elevated aromas of herbaceous gooseberries and citrus are followed by some fresh grassy asparagus characters, light capsicum and mineral. Racy flavours of herbaceous gooseberries and citrus zip across the palate with underlying grassy asparagus characters and infusions of mineral on the crisp dry finish.

Meaning 'smoky river' in Maori, Opawa is a vineyard located on the old river bed of the historic Opawa River in Marlborough. Here in Marlborough, classic Rapaura gravels absorb the sun’s warmth during the day, radiating back onto the grapes by moonlight, to create the highly aromatic flavours for which Marlborough is so highly reputed. The vineyard was developed by Nautilus Estate who purchased the land in two parcels in 2001 and 2003. The combined plot is 25 hectares of very stony soil which was wild scrub land before grapevines were planted in surrounding area in the mid 1990s.