Thanks to Mary at Consortium, who sent me a bottle of this appealingly named Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from the Treasury Wine Estate (Fosters) portfolio to review – it arrived beautifully presented in a funky piggy print box with a T-shirt and humourous covering “letter of introduction.” The quirky branding and label was quite eye catching as you can see in the photo and the whole concept had us both chuckling away at the piggy related jokes.

The grapes are from The Squealing Pig vineyard in the lower Dashwood area on the northern bank of the Awatere Valley in Marlborough. They were pressed naturally settled and racked, cool fermented and left on lees developing the savoury notes and textural qualities evident.

We poured a glass each and let it sit for a while then tasted. It was bright and pale straw in colour with hints of lime (luckily no bits of residual straw from the sty) and the nose was zingy, clean, fresh, with light tropical fruits, with a hint of capsicum / savoury / herbal notes (not “stinky armpits” savoury like some I’ve tasted lately from Otago & Nelson – I do like that though) On the palate it had great texture and minerality / dryness and succulent citrus and tropical fruit characters that lasted for ages.

So all in all a damn nice Savvy – we both liked it – in fact so much that we drank the whole bottle while writing it up! Will have to try it again with food next time.

This wine recently picked up a Silver at the New Zealand International Wine Show and I tend to agree giving it 16.5 /20 (82.5) If you’d like a Savvy that’s a little bit more interesting than the usual Marlborough full blown grassy and asparagus style, then try this… you won’t be disappointed.

Alcohol: 13.5% RRP Details:  Fine Wine Stores = $24.99 On Premise: Approx $11 per glass and $50-54 per bottle. Grocery: Not available yet and unlikely to be there for some time…

By the way the actual Pig’s Name is Tim…