Aotea Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Awards

‘Best of Show New Zealand White’ - MUNDUS VINI 2019 Summer Tasting, Germany
Gold - Royal Easter Wine Show 2020, New Zealand
Gold - MUNDUS VINI 2019 Summer Tasting, Germany
Gold - New Zealand Wine of the Year Awards 2019, NZ 
Gold - AWC Vienna 2019, Austria
Silver - London Wine Competition 2020, UK
Silver - San Francisco Int. Wine Competition 2019, USA 
Silver - The New Zealand Int Wine Show 2019, NZ
94-95 Points - Three Wine Men, Oz Clarke, April 2021, UK
5 Stars - Michael Cooper - ‘New Zealand Wines 2020’
michaelcooper.co.nz, November 2019
94 Points - Bob Campbell MW, ©The Real Review,
therealreview.com, August 2019
91 Points - Decanter, decanter.com, May 2020 

Wine Analysis

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island Vineyard
Sugar at Harvest: 21.6°Brix
Date of Harvest: 22 March 2019
pH of Wine: 3.12
T.A of Wine: 7.4g/L
Residual Sugar: 4.5g/L
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

The Vineyard

The Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Maori kumara beds (sweet potato) prior to European settlement in the early 1800’s. The Maori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kumara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and gave characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are however, very sandy and free draining. The water table is relatively high ensuring adequate underground water. These vineyards are about 1.5 kilometres from the sea, which helps moderate summer temperatures.

Winemakers Note

Aromatic and fresh Sauvignon Blanc flavours were encouraged prior to vintage through careful canopy management. The fruit was de-stemmed and pressed immediately after harvest and a cool fermentation was initiated in stainless steel tanks to retain the clean, fresh aromatic fruit characters.

Tasting Note

The 2019 Aotea by the Seifried Family Sauvignon Blanc is pungent and tropical, showing notes of snow peas, white flesh peach and passionfruit. Gentle minerally acidity balances the fruit weight and concentration on the palate leaving lingering flavours of passionfruit and citrus.

“The Aotea range is Seifried's pinnacle of production, the fruit for this wine sourced from the Rabbit Island vineyard 1.5km from the sea. It sees no oak, allowing the ripe apricot, zippy lemongrass and grassy green characters to shine, which linger on the long, tropical finish. Seek out the family's 2019 Old Coach Road Sauvignon from younger vines, which is great value” 
91 Points - Decanter, decanter.com, May 2020