Fire Road

Marlborough is the foremost wine-growing region in New Zealand, and since the whole NZ wine bandwagon got going in the 1980s, it's been Sauvignon Blanc that has led the way. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is a benchmark, world-conquering wine style, instantly recognizable and keenly intense and aromatic. The climate is a wonderfully sunny one, sheltered from the prevailing westerlies coming in off the Southern Ocean, but still with sufficient rainfall to keep things green and clean.

'Fire Road' was originally a fire break, which gave the vineyard some protection from any possible fire that might break out in the tinder dry Marlborough summers and the break eventually became a road used to get harvesters around the vineyard. We have worked with Fire Road over a number of vintages, and it has always been an excellent and consistent example of this vibrant wine style. Made by well-respected winemaker Simon Waghorn at Whitehaven estate, it is an attractively direct wine with the stated aim of marrying up tropical fruit lushness with grassy freshness, backed up with a mouthwatering streak of acidity. The 2006 vintage was one of Marlborough's largest and the quality of Fire Road was admirably high.

The follow-on vintage 2007 was of arguably even higher quality but the volume available to us is small. This was a frost-effected harvest in the South Island, and the fruit set was poor. However, the Fire Road wine that did get made was beautifully concentrated and intense.