Cloudy Bay

One of the most sought after wines. Retailers frequently are left rationing the Sauvignon Blanc. An remarkable phenomenon considering the vineyard has just a short history. The story begins in 1983 when David Hohnen, co-founder of Cape Mentelle in Western Australia was astounded with the quality of the Sauvignon Blanc the Marlborough region produced. Borrowing at 23.5% interest on his bank loan and against a challenging economic climate. He produced his fist vintage in 1985 without even the winery having been built. The 40 tonnes of grapes had to be transported 400 miles north to Gisborne. This first vintage was effectively made by phone. The second one found its way to the UK and was rapturously applauded by the media. So the legend was born. They now crush about 800 tonnes of grapes with long term contracts with six growers producing the bulk of the fruit.

The wine is certainly a head-turner. With up-front gooseberry, green pepper and elderflower character typical of the region, together with a touch of fatness from the oak and often a slight dash of Semillon, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc is undoubtedly one of the best examples of this variety to come from New Zealand. But this doesn't explain its scarcity in the UK, especially when other similarly priced and equally meritorious New Zealand Sauvignons sit on the shelf all year round.

If you asked  David Hohnen about if cloudy Bay had a deliberate policy of restricting imports into the UK to maintain an aura of scarcity. After all, if people had the impression that the wine was widely available, they might not find it as desirable; make it like gold dust, and people will happily buy as much as they can lay their hands on. This has the knock-on effect of raising the status of both this wine and the rest of the Cloudy Bay range.  He will deny this and claim that it is just the popularity of the wine that causes it to sell out so fast.. Overall, he said that some 60 000 cases of the Sauvignon are produced each year, with the UK being allocated the lion's share along with Australia; slightly less goes to the USA. Overall, I think the wine is probably worthy of its elevated reputation. I can understand the frustrations of retailers who are faced with legions of customers who 'must' have Cloudy Bay, when equally good examples lie neglected on the shelves, but it would be churlish to criticise Cloudy Bay for their effective marketing of what is an excellent wine.”

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