Catalina Sounds Wines

Are you a Savvy purchaser? This question has a distinct double meaning because it refers to whether you like to buy sauvignon Blanc and do you like it at a keen price. This is at the premium end of Marlborough but what you get in return is a wine of vitality and freshness that shows off just how good the style can be. It’s full of citrus lift with floral hints and underscored by wild herbs before delivering an intense and textural palate with great balance and length of flavour.

At the top of the South Island of New Zealand is Blenheim where the Catalina Sounds wines hail from, these are elegant, cool and collected styles that show how well Pinot Gris is developing as an alternative to the ubiquitous Sauvignon Blanc. This is much more textured and layered with a creamy mouthfeel, pure, pear fruit expression and naturally balanced acids. A perfect food wine, pair it with pork or fish for best results.

We’ve been watching Kiwi Pinot Noir with interest for a while and with good reason as it’s really beginning to emerge as a star performer. This Pinot from Catalina Sounds is one of those easy drinking, medium-bodied reds that you’ll be hard pushed to stop slurping back. We call these addictive wines, the ones you want to get another quick hit of. It’s a classy, single vineyard wine that oozes charm and sophistication. A nose of strawberry, earth and red-fruited intensity that leads to a complex and savoury palate with hints of tobacco and soft, tannins. The acids are fresh and balanced ensuring the wine has a good future.

Colour: Garnet red, with brick hues. Nose: Strawberries and blood orange, nutmeg, white pepper, and oral notes. Palate: Lovely tropical pinot avours of sour cherries and spice tobacco and leather. Medium bodied, supported by long tannins, good acid balance, will soften and develop more savoury characters with age. Winemakers comments: Fruit sourced from a number of dedicated, passionate growers. This wine can be enjoyed young, fresh and vibrant, and will develop with age, becoming softer, savoury, and even more complex.

A richer, food friendly style of savvy with subtle complexity & elegance. Leafy gooseberry, fresh pineapple, ruby grapefruit & spice with underlying smokiness. Layers of flavour & texture from lees stirring & 5% fermentation in new French oak

Pure varietal pear & musky honeysuckle florals. Tempting flavours of glacŽ pear, bright lemon, cinnamon & orange syrup in the mouth with a clean crisp finish.

This has attractive complexity; gently tweaked tropical fruits are delivered in intense form, really fresh and memorable. The palate packs similar impact and pungent ripe tropical flavours, plenty of cleansing acid crunch and lingering passionfruit flavour. Bright as a button, it will please the entire party.

Crisp, citrusy, appley and slightly spicy, in a tight, minerally style, crisp and refreshing.

Citrusy, limey and dry, in a crisp, lively style that shows a slight lack of richness but also offers very solid drinking.