Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc / 2025 / 750mL

The Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2025 is Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at full volume, grown in the lower Wairau Valley where the sea air keeps the nights cool and the fruit hanging longer. Pungent and precise rather than simply loud, it is the wine Saint Clair selects each year as its finest parcel of Sauvignon.

Passionfruit and blackcurrant lead the aromatics, with grapefruit, crushed herb and a green nettle lift sitting behind them. The palate follows the nose closely, adding lemon and a touch of ripe stone fruit to the tropical core.

Generous and layered through the middle, the Wairau Reserve carries more weight than most Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc without losing its acid line. A saline, mineral thread runs the length of the wine and stretches the finish out well past the fruit.

Pour it with Cloudy Bay oysters, whole snapper off the barbecue with lemon, salt-and-pepper squid, or a goat's cheese and asparagus tart. It also handles green herbs and chilli in Thai and Vietnamese cooking better than most whites.

Drinking beautifully now and through to around 2029, when the citrus and mineral characters will have taken over from the tropical fruit.