Andrew Jefford: Full yellow-gold: one of the deepest-hued wines in the New Zealand bracket. This wine (once you’re over the tickle of SO2) is interestingly different: tropical in style, but with warm tropical leaf, as well as seductive tropical fruit. Some oak, too? Some wild yeast? I like what’s going on here: It’s based on an uninhibited embrace of place, rather than trying to be a faux Loire. Very intriguing, very deep, very South Pacific. On the palate it’s good, too (though surely the acidity isn’t naturally this high?): deep, vivacious, secondary, resonant, the fruit as much peels and piths as juice itself—a solar Sauvignon, almost a Cirque du Soleil Sauvignon. I’m not sure I’d want a case, but everyone should try a bottle. If the acidity isn’t all natural, it would be good to try one with natural acidity in the following vintage: The balance is rather stressful and overdramatic in this wine 15

Andreas Larsson: Very nice nose, intense with gently smoky notes, nuts, almonds, yellow fruit, and a very fine oak treatment. The palate is remarkably structured, with a really fine combination of ripe fruit, a zesty acidity, creamy texture, and very long and lingering aftertaste. Add to this a balance and complexity many of its peers were missing. Really nice18

Stephan Reinhardt: Mocha aromas! Quite intense color. Very spicy on the nose: smoky, almost Burgundian, complex. At this moment, I am not sure if this wine would fail in a Puligny tasting. The more I sniff, the more it claims, “I am a mistaken white Burgundy!” Believe me, I really tried to discover Sauvignon Blanc here or New Zealand, but in the end I saw Graham smiling out of my glass: “You like Burgundy? I give you Burgundy.” However, I love Burgundies— and thus I find this wine fascinating: complex, salty, pure, and powerful; very long, displaying some mocha flavors, too. This is a born pirate 16.5