Dog Point Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc 2020 - Re-Release

Reviews

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 95/100 & Top 100 Wines from New Zealand 2022. Layers of crushed stones, smoked almonds, green apples, lemon pith, white pepper, licorice and oyster shells. It's so powerful and concentrated. Tightly wound and phenolic with a medium body and sharp acidity. Intense, and just keeps going. Always a sophisticated and complex sauvignon blanc. Drink or hold.

MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator: 95/100. Stunning, with a complex, aromatic mix of beeswax, litsea oil, vetiver and honeysuckle notes up front, followed by ripe peach, melon and lemon curd flavors at the juicy core. Reveals whiffs of grilled lemon and smoke that swirl around the flavors, as well as a hint of crushed rock minerality on a supple, seamless frame. Gains momentum on the epic finish. Drink now through 2030.

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 94+/100. (June 2025) A preponderance of yellow fruits, exotic spices, layers of cloves, star anise and fennel, with white cloth and beeswax. It’s a powerful, tightly coiled wine of great length and complexity. These evolve favourably in the future, while you allow this to age and settle. This is a very impressive wine.

Fallstaff Magazine "The world's best white wines" (May 2017): Top 10 Sauvignon Blanc of the world. 

Michael Cooper: This ranks among the country's greatest oak-aged Sauvignon Blancs.

Bob Campbell, MW: The ... Dog Point Vineyard Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc has achieved cult status for its barrel ferment, yeast lees and mineral/reductive characters, which elevate it above the normally fruit-forward Marlborough styles.

Tasting Note

Pale straw in colour. Cold smoke and flinty gravels lead into a subdued nose of ripe grapefruit, pears, cloves and honeydew melon. A focussed and linear backbone of acidity carries ripe citrus notes and subtle smoky complex characters. Extended elevage on lees has imparted hallmark cashew and mealy flavours and chalky textures.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Wine type: White wine

Grape varial: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Food match:  Match with herb-marinated poultry and pork dishes. Fish (especially salmon), poultry, vegetable dishes and soft white cheeses.

Vineyard: Section 94, Dog Point Home Marlborough Vineyard, New Zealand. 28 year old vines on silty-clay loams with interspersed alluvial gravels.

Growing Season 2020: A warm growing season with very dry conditions between January and April with only 45mm falling (less than 30% of the average). A season which will be remembered for other reasons however, with a global pandemic affecting staffing movements and logistics but one where calm decision making and patience resulted in perfect ripening conditions, and a very rewarding season. One of the best the region has experienced in recent years.

Winemaking: Hand picked and whole bunch pressed to tank for 24 hours of settling prior to eighteen months fermentation and aging in mostly older French Oak barrels. 100% natural ferment. Bottled without fining and only minimal filtration

Wine style: dry

Alcohol: 13.5% vol

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulfites

Cellaring potential: 2030+

Closure: Screwcap

Ingredients: Grapes, preservatives and antioxidants: sulphites. Bottled in a protective atmosphere..

Produced and bottled by: Dog Point Vineyards Ltd, PO Box 52, Renwick, Marlborough, New Zealand

Distributor: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany

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