2020 Sauvignon Blanc Abstract Three Rows

Founded in 2013, this is one of Marlborough's most exciting labels to emerge in the past decade. I have yet to find a wine from Blank Canvas that I wouldn’t recommend wholeheartedly. Established by Marlborough-based international wine consultant Matt Thomson and his wife, Sophie Parker-Thomson MW, Blank Canvas buys fruit and makes the wines at a contract facility. The influence of Thomson's yearly trips to make wine in Europe is reflected in the restraint and elegance of these wines. This is natural winemaking without the faults: cloudy juice, wild fermentation, no filtration, etc. If you think you don't like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the dry-farmed, hand-harvested Sauvignon Blanc Abstract will change your mind. While the 2019 vintage is starting to mellow, the new 2020 release is full of vigor and firmness and needs time to come around. The 2020 Chardonnay Reed Vineyard offers excellent texture, and even in the tricky 2022 vintage, very selective picking allowed the pair to produce clean, pure, layered wines where others failed miserably. Parker-Thomson sees the Chardonnay as her reputation-builder and claims she could sell it three times over, having to allocate it strictly. It’s a nice problem to have. In 2023, the pair started a partnership project with a grower in Marlborough. There will be more single-vineyard, single-variety cuvées on the horizon. Watch this space.