Marlborough

“Marlborough did for Sauvignon Blanc what the Beatles did for pop music and Hitchcock did for modern cinema.”
Chris Losh, Wine International

Marlborough is New Zealand’s largest wine producer, accounting for nearly 80% of all wine production. Located on the east coast at the top of the South Island, with mountains to the west, it is one of New Zealand’s sunniest and driest areas. When the first growers planted grapes in Marlborough in the 1970s, it is unlikely they would have foreseen the extent of the growth and fame that the region’s wine industry would achieve, driven almost entirely by the infamous Sauvignon Blanc. The distinctive pungency and zest fruit flavours of the first Marlborough wines, in particular Sauvignon Blanc, captured the imagination of the country's winemakers, and worldwide interest has continued to fuel Marlborough’s wine boom.

Terroir

The Wairau Valley

“Wairau” is a Maori word meaning “many waters”. This sub-region is broadly defined by its proximity to the 170km long Wairau River that runs from the mountains in the west to the ocean at Cloudy Bay. Marlborough’s earliest vineyards were established on the characteristically alluvial river plains that include the acclaimed Rapaura region; home to some of the region’s most well known wineries.

The Awatere Valley

South east of the Wairau Valley and closer to the coast, the vineyards of the narrow Awatere Valley experience a cooler, drier and windier growing season. The area can be more exposed to cold weather from the South than the other sub-regions, which tends to create a later ripening crop and longer growing season. The soils are typically alluvial gravel on wind borne loess, often exhibiting a diverse composition of stone materials.

The Southern Valleys

The soils of the Ben Morven, Brancott, Omaka and Waihopai Valleys that lie to the south of the Wairau plains typically originated from glacial outwash. Less extensively worked by the river system these soils tend to have significant amounts of gravel but also exhibit higher levels of clay than the other sub-regions. While the Wairau River moderates the viticultural climate on the northern side of the Wairau River, cold air descends from the mountains into the Southern valleys creating a cooler, later ripening climate. 

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