A "season of everything" climatically, saved by a very settled autumn that produced classic Marlborough flavours.
Cloudy Bay broke the winemaking rules to create a sophisticated style of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc made through wild fermentation and aging in old French oak.
Batches of fruit from five vineyards were picked according to flavour profile. Our grapes were harvested in the cool of night to preserve fruit fl avour and loaded immediately into our presses.
After settling the juice for a period of two to three days, the juice was racked directly to French oak barrel (less than 10% of which were new) and allowed to undergo a slow wild or “natural” fermentation. The primary fermentation, which took until December (8 months) to completein some batches, was followed by a spontaneous malolactic fermentation. The wine was left in barrel on yeast lees until October 2010, when it was racked and lightly fi ned for clarity. The wine was bottled mid November.