Cloudy Bay

(2025) This is an early review for this wine, written in November 2025, so expect it to become much more widely available over ensuing months. With fruit mainly from the Wairau Valley, 1.8% of the blend was fermented in large-format oak vats and a portion using wild yeast. Aromatically there is definitely a touch of the passion fruit and elderflower, but this vintage seems to be more about a direct citrus freshness in a wine of very pale colour. In the mouth it is bracing stuff, less flamboyant than some vintages, and again a cool citrus and lightly herbal character rather than anything overtly tropical. It has texture, and glimpses of a juicier nectarine weight in a a well-tempered rendition of this classic Marlborough SB in 2025.

Cloudy Bay, owned by Moët Hennessy, has always had a layer of richness that most of the other vegetal Sauvignons from the South Island seem to lack. The region’s signature flavors of lime and kiwi fruit are still there, but the extra complexity and depth of flavors, along with a hint of chalkiness in the finish, make this a more table-worthy white than the vast majority of its counterparts. 93 Roger Morris