Tasting notes:
Notes of grapefruit zest, white peach, lemon oil, beeswax, roasted hazelnuts, and a signature struck-match/gun-smoke reductive character with sharp, vibrant acidity.
Reviews:
James Suckling
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. From organically grown grapes.
Wine Spectator
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.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Section 94 is today five years from its harvest, and it shows 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 favorably in the future, so drinking the estate Sauvignon Blanc in its youth is recommended, while you allow this to age and settle. This is a very impressive wine. 14% alcohol.
Wine Enthusiast
From one of Marlborough’s most distinctive producers, this single site Sauvignon Blanc is aged and fermented in older French oak barrels in the Pouilly-Fumé style. The resulting wine is golden hued with opulent aromas of roasted nuts, grilled pineapple, lemon oil and gun smoke. The palate is equally rich but restrained, countered by mouthwatering acidity, with focus and flavor depth that lingers long on the finish. It’s a Sauvignon made like a Chardonnay, so it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but this bottling, from a strong vintage, finds great balance and could cellar for several years.
Wine & Spirits
From a block at the estate planted in 1992, this wine develops its leesy richness over the course of 18 months in neutral French oak barrels. It’s tense and tightly built around floral apricot and buttery white peach, a ripe, rich, ambitious wine that meets its goals, and warrants cellar time.