Reserve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

This wine was created to redefine the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc style. A real crowd pleaser, it is loved for its juicy, ripe flavours and restrained acidity. Each glass is brimming with succulent flavours of passionfruit, tropical fruit and citrus. The fruit flavour is balanced with crisp acidity and a distinct salty minerality, which combine to create a mouth-watering finish.

Reserve Sauvignon Blanc

Expertly crafted from our favourite vineyards, our Reserve wines have impressive flavour concentration and palate weight. Adorning every label on every bottle of Rapaura Springs wine is a simple symbol – a circle of rocks that signify the pure spring in our home vineyard in the heart of Marlborough, New Zealand. Our label and our name represent our intimate connection to the pristine waters that collect high in the Southern Alps and are gradually filtered beneath the region’s braided rivers, refreshing the deep underground aquifers that feed our vines, and bubble up in our own Rapaura Springs.

Winemaking Notes

The 2023 growing season started with above average bunch numbers in most districts in Marlborough. Unsettled and cooler weather over flowering resulted in loose and lighter bunches, with the net effect of producing average yields across most varieties and regions. The weather around the time of veraison was unstable, and at times threatening. We just missed out on the destruction of the cyclone that hit the east coast of the North Island. The weather then settled into a pattern reminiscent of the harvests in the early 2000s. The nights were particularly cool, and this helped to arrest any small levels of botrytis that had started in the early unsettled weather. It was a vintage where patience was rewarded and those who waited harvested fully ripe grapes with concentrated flavours and classic acidity. The Sauvignon Blanc for this wine is grown in the Dillons Point and Wairau sub-regions, known for expressive aromatics and ripe fruit flavour. We believe these sites grow the best Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough. Our winery is the only facility in this sub-region, meaning our grapes are immediately pressed after harvest, minimising skin contact. This allows us to capture all the expressive aromatics and fruit flavour, without bitter phenolics. After pressing, the juice was settled and then cool fermented in stainless steel to retain the vibrant flavours and aromas. We use a variety of yeast strains to provide palate weight and complexity. 

Cellaring Recommendation

Enjoy now, or cellar for up to two years.

2023 Tasting Note 2022 Tasting Note 2021 Tasting Note