2023 Sauvignon Blanc

"Yes, there’s a touch of colour, an amber-gold, and appealing chewy phenolics because this is fermented wild in French oak foudres and puncheons, with a portion of skin-contact. This creates all that texture and grip and interest. It’s not a fruity, tropical, boring drink, it’s complex, smokin’ and an excellent food wine. It’s all savoury, and more about the palate with raw quince tannins, dabs of spice, crisp acidity and finishes very dry. Sure, it’s not for everyone, just more for me then."

"This sits closer to a well-made skin-contact white than a Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc, and is better for it. Dried pear, honey water, palo santo and mango seed lead. A reminder that Vasse Felix can be as creative as it is classic. In the mouth, there’s a contained wildness, shaped by fermentation in oak, with 26% on skins. Plenty of tannin, with notes of tonka bean, cinnamon and apple seed, all held together with saline viscosity. Drink with Indian pani puri."

"Serious Sauvignon Blanc. It’s complex, textural, powerful and well sustained. In fact it’s so complex that it’s difficult to describe the flavour. The word funky comes to mind but in saying that it’s not flinty or dirty; exotic fruit might be a better-though-still-not-perfect descriptor. Cooked apples, musk, pineapple, woodsmoke and earth; now we’re getting closer. It’s a wine of genuine flavour, genuine texture and genuine presence. I can see it maturing well too."