2023 Blank Canvas, `Abstract` Three Rows Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Founded in 2012, Blank Canvas is a collaboration between Master of Wine Sophie Parker-Thomson and award-winning winemaking consultant Matt Thomson. Over 45 years of collective experience, in the global wine industry, has enabled them to seek out exceptional single vineyards, while their mutual love of the world’s fine wines has formed the inspiration for Blank Canvas. Together they craft exciting, small batch wines that are at the forefront of New Zealand’s fine wine scene.

Although they work with vineyards and growers across New Zealand, Blank Canvas’ focus is firmly rooted in their home region of Marlborough. Sophie is the current Chair of Appellation Marlborough Wine™ (AMW), and Blank Canvas is a founding member of this first-of-its-kind New World organisation. Promoting and upholding quality standards for its members, and the wines certified each year, ensures consumers are guaranteed a Marlborough wine of provenance, quality and authenticity. The Blank Canvas range of single-vineyard Marlborough wines highlight the nuances between Marlborough’s diverse subregions, which are delineated in the AMW Wine Map of Marlborough.

The Holdaway Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc delivers a powerful, precise fruit expression with an attractive salty character, distinctive of Marlborough’s coastal Dillons Point subregion. It is quickly becoming one of New Zealand’s top-rated Sauvignon Blanc wines. The Abstract | Three Rows Sauvignon Blanc, handpicked from a dry-farmed parcel within the Holdaway Vineyard, is fermented with indigenous yeast in seasoned French oak puncheons and bottled without fining or filtration. The resulting texture and complexity draw parallels to Bordeaux Blanc from Graves.

The Reed Vineyard Chardonnay is found at the confluence of the Wairau and Waihopai Rivers, planted on alluvial clay soils. Fermented with indigenous yeast in French oak puncheons with no lees stirring, this unfiltered wine is impressive, elegant, and complex, with a great capacity for ageing. The 2023 vintage saw the inaugural release of the `Tano` Chardonnay, handpicked from the Anandale Farm vineyard in the wild, coastal subregion of Blind River. This cool, exposed site gives Tano its signature elevated acidity, creating a vivid and pristine cool climate Chardonnay that highlights the stylistic capabilities of Marlborough. A love of German Prädikatswein and the high natural acidity of Blind River has inspired the Anandale Farm Riesling, made in a Kabinett style from this same cool subregion.

The 2023 vintage saw a slight departure from the single vineyard philosophy as the much-loved Grüner Veltliner was a result of two vineyards: from the Rapaura and Brancott subregions, respectively. A combination of fermentation in puncheons and maturation on lees gives the resulting wine savoury complexity, and history shows this wine will have an impressive life ahead of it.

Both single-vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noirs (the Escaroth Vineyard from the Taylor Pass and the Settlement Vineyard from the Omaka Valley) are made with deep respect to Pinot Noir’s perfume and ethereal nature, and varying degrees of whole bunch are used to lift aromatics and provide structural complexity.

Finally, the Element Vineyard Syrah hails from the smallest vineyard in the Gimblett Gravels of Hawkes Bay. This true cool-climate expression is a homage to the great wines of Northern Rhône. High whole bunch use provides a very aromatic and elegant Syrah while a frequent Blank Canvas twist involves co-fermenting a small percentage of Grüner Veltliner skins, marrying the black and white pepper of respective varieties together.

The fruit came from a single vineyard in the Dillons Point sub-region located on the coastal fringe of the Wairau Valley. This vineyard belongs to the Holdaway family who have been farming in Marlborough since 1864. They practise sustainable viticulture with such things as their own compost and mulching preparations to maintain organic matter in the soil. The soils are fertile and deep but well-drained, with plenty of mineral nutrients which is ideal for Sauvignon. Unusually this parcel is dry farmed, so the roots go deep, maintaining vigour via the pure underground aquifers. The vineyard is VSP-trained and cane-pruned with wild-sown cover crops for extra organic matter and biodiversity.

The 2023 vintage got off to a nervous start, with variable conditions at flowering in December leading to lower yields and loose bunches. This proved to be a critical factor in the success of 2023, as the La Nina conditions meant evenly spread rains throughout late summer and early autumn did not cause disease issues. Cold nights held botrytis at bay and ensured naturally high acidity in the fruit. Exceptional weather through March and April provided the grapes with a wonderful ripening season, and the region was rewarded with intense flavours and ripeness levels across the district.

The grapes were hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed. Only the free run juice went into three to five-year-old French oak puncheons (500L) without any settling. The wine was left to ferment naturally with indigenous yeasts. It was not stirred throughout the time in oak. This vintage did undergo natural malolactic fermentation. Maturation in these seasoned oak puncheons took place over 15 months before being bottled without filtration.

An alternative expression of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with a focus on texture and layers of aromatic complexity. The wine has an intense backbone of blackcurrant, passionfruit, and a signature Dillons Point salty minerality, balanced by savoury notes, toast and smoky complexity on the palate.