The Fuder Matthews Lane Sauvignon Blanc 2012

In Liverpool, Mathew Street is a narrow thoroughfare of a couple of hundred metres. Over the years it has housed the Cavern Club during the Merseybeat era, the legendary Eric's club during the punk era, and the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun in between, all three of these wondrous places nurturing a cultural gumbo far greater than the sum of its parts. In Wairau Valley, Marlborough, Matthews Lane is a narrow thoroughfare of a couple of hundred metres. It houses three unique parcels of vineyard, wondrous places which nurture a vinous serendipity of dry grass, tropical fruit and thyme into a cream-textured combination way beyond its elements. They must be on a ley line!

The brothers Giesen, Alex, Theo and Marcel, left their native Germany in the early 1980s to set up a winery in New Zealand. In the meantime, they have built up a holding of 283 hectares in Marlborough's highly regarded Wairau Valley, and Giesen has established itself as one of the eminent wineries in New Zealand.

Wine has been produced in Marlborough, in the north east corner of New Zealand's South Island, since the 1970s, with the setting up of the Montana winery. The majority of its vineyards lie around the region's capital, Blenheim, Renwick, Cloudy Bay and the Wairau Valley. Matthews Lane Sauvignon Blanc comes from two adjacent vineyards which have been divided into three parcels. As there is some difference in soil type and fertility between the three, they are managed, harvested and fermented separately.

Fruit was picked by hand and whole bunch pressed. The bare minimum of maceration was allowed, in order to reduce attendant solids and keep the purity of the fruit's individual acidity. The juice was then moved to 1000 litre German Fuder barrels (70% new and 30% second use). The final wine was given further complexity by the addition of a tiny quantity of Semillon (like the Sauvignon, hand-picked and whole bunch pressed), which was fermented in a new Fuder barrel. The wine underwent no malolactic fermentation, and rested on its yeast lees for eleven months, gaining considerable depth and complexity. No fining or filtration was required prior to bottling, only gross lees needed to be racked off. The wine was bottled in April 2013.

Fuder Matthews Lane is a complex wine, with a soft palate imbued with thyme and tropical fruits, a delicate, creamy texture and a stunningly long finish.