Skin-fermented 80% whole bunch Sauvignon Blanc from Hawke’s Bay – not your run-of-the-mill offering. The warmer 2020 vintage has brought this back from the taut awkward beginner, into a more comfortable, lithe and generous wine – the edges are still definitely, deliberately, there, but show more rounded now. Hazy but bright in the glass, there’s an apricot, sage and lime blossom note on the nose. It’s quite ethereal – wispy, and dances across the palate, with a clear acidity giving backbone amid a definite saline tang. Dry, delicious, sharp and edgy. Flavours of mandarin, rootbeer and a pithy grapefruit ebb into a waxy, drying texture at the finish. 93pts. An intriguing, disrupting, non-cult wine.
Halcyon Days Kotare 2020
