2022 Sauvignon Blanc Taylors Pass

With the latest releases, Villa Maria introduces two new cuvées. The most impressive is the Sauvignon Blanc Woven, an ambitious, wild-fermented, wood-fermented, lees-aged expression. The first vintage is 2021. There is also a new single-vineyard cuvée from Marlborough’s Waihopai Valley, the Sauvignon Blanc Bankhouse, which hails from the 2022 vintage – thus, judgment is better passed when a kinder vintage comes along. The 2023s are certainly a relief to taste after the 2022s, and the Sauvignon Blanc Reserve Clifford Bay always seems to deliver. The flagship Chardonnay, Keltern, from the Hawke’s Bay region, is usually one to savor, and while it has done its best in 2022, it doesn’t quite hit top form.