Allan Scott Wines

Vintage 2023 Unveiled: A Journey from Vine to Bottle in Marlborough

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Embark on a sensory voyage with us as we unravel the intricacies of Harvest 2023, capturing the essence of each step from the meticulous pruning of vines in July 2022 to the creation of the exquisite Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in June 2023. Join our dedicated camera team as they shadow the experts, revealing the heart and soul poured into every bottle.

A Season of Nature’s Grace:

Harvest 2023, a season characterised by collectiveness, collaboration, tranquillity, and winemaking finesse, commenced with an auspicious start. Excellent flowering set the stage for an abundant crop during harvest. A classic Marlborough summer unfolded, offering consistent days without excessive heat and a slightly lower total of sunshine than average.

Nature’s grace continued throughout the season, presenting both challenges and opportunities. Light yet persistent rain events during berry maturation required focused vineyard management to preserve healthy fruit for the impending harvest. Across the vineyards, this challenge was met with dedication, resulting in beautifully clean fruit ready for a promising harvest.

Collaboration in Action:

At the heart of Harvest 2023 was a talented and experienced team of cellar hands and leaders. This vintage provided a unique opportunity for everyone to showcase their skills, collaborate, and share expertise. The result was a symphony of flavours that allowed the true essence of Marlborough fruit to shine.

Mechanical harvesting and prompt pressing during the cool night hours ensured the preservation of aromatic qualities. The juice, kept at low temperatures, underwent fermentation to dryness using carefully chosen yeasts, maintaining cool temperatures throughout the process. After clarification, the pick of the tanks was meticulously selected to create a fresh and vibrant blend before bottling.

A Symphony of Flavors:

The culmination of this meticulous process is a wine that is fresh, zesty, juicy, and full—the epitome of a new world style. Expect a sensory explosion that avoids overwhelming the palate. Tropical fruit with a fresh herbaceous character is balanced by zesty passionfruit, leading to a dry finish. This crisp and refreshing wine reflects the true terroir characters of the soils and the area from which it originates, offering the familiar and beloved aromas and flavours that Marlborough is renowned for.

The Result:

Harvest 2023 encapsulates the spirit of collaboration, dedication, and the delicate dance between nature and human expertise. Join us on this 12-month adventure as we invite you to experience the harmonious blend of collaboration, tranquillity, and finesse in every sip of our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Cheers to the journey from vine to bottle, where every step is a testament to the passion and craftsmanship that goes into creating a truly exceptional wine.

Allan Scott Wines

Distinctly regal Central Otago flavour

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It wasn’t just a passion for creating great wine that sent the Scott family searching for the perfect vineyard in Central Otago, it was also a longstanding love of the region.

With a climate and terrain unmatched for its rugged beauty and ability to produce excellent wines, it’s no wonder we have been enamoured with the Scott Base vineyard from the start.

Framed by the Pisa mountain range, with views of Lake Dunstan, Scott Base vineyard may only produce a limited vintage, but every bottle brims with the experience and enthusiasm that comes from many years of winemaking.

Carefully crafted to hero that distinctly Central Otago flavour, Scott Base is the classic “best kept secret”. In our Kiwi way, the Scott Family stands quietly proud of what a great wine it is. So here’s to good wine.

As one of New Zealand’s true Méthode Traditionnelle houses, we use exacting standards and time-honoured techniques to carefully craft the Scott Base Emperor Méthode Traditionnelle wine.

As summer quickly approaches, we’re excited to celebrate the launch of our latest offering, the Scott Base Emperor, and proudly share its impressive score of 93 Points from The Real Review. All of this comes with a touch of the distinctive Central Otago essence.

“Rich, flavoursome, creamy-textured fizz within a broad, mellow style. Toasted brioche, ginger and just a hint of green apple flavours with some citrus/lime characters. Quite a complex wine with a lingering finish”. Bob Campbell

Indulge in the exquisite finesse of this elegant wine, radiating sophistication. You can experience its allure by placing an order on our website, paying a visit to the Cellar Door in Cromwell, or acquiring it from Glengarry.

Allan Scott Kekerengu
Allan Scott Wines

Discover the coastal elegance of Marlborough’s Sauvignon Blanc

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Imagine a place that embodies everything good about the Marlborough wine region, but in a little-known valley to the south. Hidden between ageless mountains and an iron sea is a place of wild beauty named Kekerengu.

Kekerengu Sauvignon Blanc

Located within Marlborough’s Appellation Wine Region, Kekerengu is untouched and unique. The soil here is different — stony and rough, with a vein of limestone carried by forgotten glaciers. The morning mist is a ghost that tends the vines, and the wind is a prevailing southerly that makes the grapes develop slower than in other places — perfect for cool-climate winemaking.

It is a lonely place, Kekerengu. You’ll find more company within the silent parts of the nearby Pacific Ocean than on any track—and you’ll receive more chatter from a Fantail than from a cellphone. And that’s what makes this place special. It’s remote and rugged.

It is here that Josh Scott first had a hand in planting a block of Sauvignon Blanc more than twenty years back. Since then this little valley has called him to return. The traditional opinion said it wouldn’t work; planting vines here was too audacious and would require too much effort. Fortunately, audacity and hard work are two things that Josh is known for—and so he set about creating something special to share with the world.

This Sauvignon Blanc is a true cool-climate wine. Unlike traditional Sauvignon Blanc, this wine gets better with age. As it matures a gentle mist gathers within—forsaking clarity for flavour. Fresh sea breezes from the nearby beach add a gentle saltiness to the grapes, which can be tasted from the glass.

Once the grapes are harvested they are immediately pressed in the cool of the night. Light filtering, and minimal winemaker intervention, allows the fruit to sing. It is a wine to remind you that there are still places in this world that are pure, and it has the flavour profile to prove it.

If you can’t make it here to experience it for yourself, enjoy it in a glass of our Black Label Sauvignon Blanc 2022 which is made from grapes grown at Kekerengu.⁠ Fresh, zesty, juicy and full, showing ripe tropical fruit, a flinty palate and a mouth-watering crisp sea-salted herbaceousness.

Vintage 2022 /  Wine Spectator – 93 Points

“Delivers a terrific, lip-smacking mix of crunchy sea salt, toasted herbs and tropical flavors that show terrific purity to the Key lime, dried pineapple and passionfruit flavors at the core. Reveals intense acidity on the long finish.” MaryAnn Worobiec