Ata Rangi Te Wa Sauvignon Blanc (Organic) 2019 ~ Martinborough New Zealand

96/100 Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier
95/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
94/100 Nick Stock, jamessuckling.com
94/100 Bob Campbell, The Real Review
93/100 Joe Czerwinski, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
93/100 The Wine Front
91/100 Wine Enthusiast

4 Stars - The Real Review Recommended
Top Rank - The Real Review

Replaces Ata Rangi's Rarangi Sauvignon Blanc which is no longer made. It rates higher, is from the same site on the Ata Rangi vineyard and is made by the same winemaker.

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit "A stunning rendition of the variety offering brilliant fruit purity together with elegant complexity. It's delightfully lifted on the nose showing Granny Smith apple, jalapeno, fresh fig and lime peel aromas with a hint of oatmeal. The palate displays excellent weight and focus combined with fine texture and flowing mouthfeel, finishing impressively long and mouth-watering. At its best: now to 2026."

Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier "Complex, calm, softly spoken aromas of citrus peel and cape gooseberry, golden kiwi fruit and apple. As the wine opens up so too does the aroma package becoming more complex and louder with a soft sage and herb layer. Delicious, dry and textured on the palate with flavours of lemon and red apple, more cape gooseberry and white fleshed orchard fruits. Youthful, savoury, complex and lengthy. A wine to enjoy today and through 2025+."

Nick Stock, jamessuckling.com "This has an attractive and complex nose, offering really vivid ripe-peach, passion-fruit and lime-brulee aromas. The palate has impressively smooth texture and really fresh, deeply flavored peaches and mangoes abound. Delicious now. Screw cap."

Bob Campbell, The Real Review "Bright, tangy yet pleasingly textural sauvignon blanc with nectarine, citrus-lemon, pineapple, wildflowers, spice and anise characters. A rich and quite complex wine with an impressively lengthy finish."

Joe Czerwinski, Robert Parker Wine Advocate "Winemaker Helen Masters builds complexity into the 2019 Te Wa Sauvignon Blanc by incorporating some skin contact (15%), a good bit of barrel fermentation and aging (40%), some malolactic, and indigenous ferments throughout. The impressive result offers up scents of orange marmalade, nectarines and gooseberries, while the medium-bodied palate is unusually silky for Sauvignon Blanc, gliding easily into a long, textural finish. To Masters's great credit, all of the parts come together harmoniously, with none of the individual aspects sticking out."

Wine Enthusiast "From stony, alluvial gravels and partially fermented on skins and in barrels, this wine starts with a perfume of pineapple and guava, an underlay of green rind and lavender characters. As it warms, a more subtle, stony minerality floats to the fore. In the mouth it feels young and vibrant, with bright fruit, a slippery texture and rapier acidity. A round, pithy grapefruit finish closes things out. Still a baby, this should blossom in another few years and gain boatloads of complexity with time. Drink 2021–2030."

Huon Hooke "When Ata Rangi started making wine and wanted to get a few runs on the board, they entered some of their wines in competitions. Different vintages of Ata Rangi Pinot Noir won the IWSC London Trophy in 1995, 1996 and 2001. The ten vintages of Ata Rangi Pinot Noir from 1996 each won gold medals and netted a total of seven trophies."

Ata Rangi no longer enters wine competitions, but the accolades continue. In 2010 Ata Rangi and Felton Road were both awarded the inaugural Tipuranga Teitei o Aotearoa or ‘Grand Cru of New Zealand’ by their peers. That’s a serious pat on the back.

Ata Rangi is a small, family-owned Martinborough winery with a big reputation, particularly for pinot noir. Their grape supply is from nearly 50 hectares of organically grown grapes from 14 small, close proximity vineyards on 30cm of shallow silt-loam on top of 25-metre deep alluvial gravels."

Ata Rangi, meaning "dawn sky" or "new beginning" is a small New Zealand winery with a big reputation. Located at the southern end of the North Island, it is owned and managed by a family trio - Clive Paton, his wife Phyll and his sister Alison. Clive planted his first vines on a small, stony sheep paddock at the edge of the Martinborough village in 1980 as one of a handful of people who pioneered winegrowing in the area.

Martinborough is a wine-producing area in the southern part of New Zealand's North Island. The small town and surrounding district are home to around 1,500 residents and some of New Zealand's most highly respected boutique wineries.

The Sauvignon Blanc taste is one of the most identifiable in the world of white wines for a few reasons. First, it always has crisp, high acidity. Second, it has a chemical compound called pyrazine which gives grassy, herbal or bell pepper flavors. When grown in cooler climates or picked early, the herbaceous green character is most prominent. In warmer climates or allowed to hang longer on the vine, the pyrazine character diminishes in favor of riper fruit flavors ranging from grapefruit, to passion fruit and guava.