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Boris· Wix Kyiv Office
Tasting Notes(1)
3.8
Less flashy than I expected from this label - aromatically restrained, almost shy on the nose. Spiced tropical fruit on the palate with a charge of juicy acidity that keeps it crunchy and fresh. Decent complexity for the category, but still unmistakably NZ Sauvignon in the DNA. Flavourful, long. Not my style, but it works in its own league.
About
Mud House's Single Vineyard Sauvignon from the Woolshed Vineyard in Marlborough's Wairau Plains Southern Valleys, planted in 2002. Soils combine river-terrace gravels with overlying silt and loam, plus gentler erosional-clay hillside slopes - drainage from the gravel and water retention from the clay framed as the structural backbone of the wine. Standard Marlborough Sauvignon protocol: cool-fermented in stainless steel, brief lees contact, no oak. 13% ABV.
2023 in Marlborough was a tricky-then-saved year. A wet winter, cool spring through a variable and protracted flowering, and damp early summer with disease pressure put it on edge. The North Island took Cyclone Gabrielle hard; Marlborough dodged it and was rewarded with a clear, sunny late summer and an extended dry autumn that rescued the vintage. Sauvignon Blanc yields were only average - the loose bunches from poor fruit set actually helped with disease resistance - and the surviving fruit came in clean, with firm acidity and good phenolic ripeness.
