The range
Marlborough leads, as it does in most Australian fridges: Oyster Bay, Cloudy Bay, Greywacke, Stoneleigh, Mud House, Squealing Pig, 821 South and Upside Down. Alongside them, Sancerre from the Loire and Shaw + Smith from the Adelaide Hills.
These are the same grape and they do not taste alike. Marlborough is the loud style — passionfruit, cut grass, sharp acidity — because New Zealand sunlight and cool nights push those aromatics hard. Sancerre grows on Loire flint and limestone and comes out mineral, citrus-driven and far more restrained. If Marlborough has started to feel like too much, Sancerre is the same grape with the volume down.
Cloudy Bay Te Koko and Greywacke Wild Sauvignon are a third category again: barrel-fermented with wild yeast, closer in weight to a chardonnay.
7bottles. Every one with a reason written against it.
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because it is number ten in the state, and because it is the cheapest way to show the difference between Australian and New Zealand sauvignon blanc, which is larger than most people expect.
750 mL12.2%7.2 std
$9.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is number seven in the state and number five nationally, and because it sits between the value bottles and Oyster Bay at a point on the shelf that would otherwise be empty.
750 mL12.5%7.4 std
$14.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is number six in the state and because it is the one bottle in this group whose difference from the others is a fact about the ground rather than a style choice.
750 mL12.5%7.4 std
$12.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is the fifth-best-selling sauvignon blanc in the state in the wholesale data we track, and it holds the entry rung of our white shelf. Every range needs a bottle at the bottom that people buy by the case, and this is ours.
750 mL12.5%7.4 std
$9.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is number three in the state and number three nationally, and because the same house's rose holds a tenth of the rose segment on its own - customers arrive here having already decided on the brand.
750 mL12.5%7.4 std
$16.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is number two in the state and sits several dollars under Oyster Bay, which makes it the bottle people buy by the case rather than the bottle.
750 mL12.5%7.4 std
$15.99
Marlborough · New Zealand
We stock it because it is the number one white in New South Wales and in the country on 3.15% of the segment - more than twice the next Australian white - and because no wine list can open without it.
750 mL13.0%7.7 std
$18.99
