2015 Tom Eddy TENZ Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 750 ml

“More Light Than Heat” — Gooseberry-Infused 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

In late 2009, with the U.S. dollar continuing to crumble against its New Zealand equivalent, American importers began abandoning partnerships with many of the finest Sauvignon Blanc estates in Marlborough. Despite America’s love affair with the gooseberry vibrancy of Kiwi Sauvignon, the numbers quite simply no longer added up.

Of late, the greenback has rallied, and now, on the eve of the release of one of the most extraordinary Sauvignon Blanc vintages Marlborough has ever known, importers are returning to New Zealand’s South Island.

When we look back five years from now, will we see that a single, quite anomalous growing season — 2015 — once again stole the hearts, noses, and palates of American wine enthusiasts?

Absent another currency hiccup, there’s no question about it.

On Friday, Stephen Tanzer, the brilliant wine critic whose International Wine Cellar was a must-read for everything Kiwi since the mid-1980s, published an exhaustive report on New Zealand headlined “More Light Than Heat.” The critic explained how the best estates in Marlborough have adapted their vineyard practices to this unique microclimate, making for rich, ripe, and beautifully textured Sauvignon Blancs braced with “fresh, natural acidity.”

The 2015 growing season, Tanzer wrote, was an exceedingly warm year “bookended by cold conditions at the beginning and end,” the first of which trimmed potential yields by as much as 40%. The top estates nursed small-berry Sauvignon Blanc to near-perfect phenolic maturity, while retaining the acid backbone for which Marlborough has long been so well known.

A quick bit of buying advice: If you recall the days when you piled top-notch Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc into your cellar, paying less than $25/bottle for top cuvées from the likes of Cloudy Bay, Dog Point, and Greywacke, the fabulous 2015s should have you turning your attention back to the South Island of New Zealand.

And if you’re offered an exquisite gooseberry-infused 2015 crafted by Napa Valley winemaker Tom Eddy for just $15/bottle, DON’T buy a case. Buy TWO!

Given the extraordinary 2015 vintage and Eddy’s predilection for the Sauvignon Blanc grown at Cloudy Bay and Dog Point, the richness, elegance, and purity of the 2015 TENZ should come as no surprise. Brilliant greenish-light yellow color. Piercing aromas of tropical fruit, ripe citrus, and melon, lifted by anise and wet-stone minerality. Rich and intensely concentrated, sweetly citrusy, filled with gooseberry, white peach, dried herbs, and spice, finishing with terrific grip and length. Drink now for its youthful vibrancy or, like all the top 2015s, lay this gorgeous Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc down until 2020.

$26 on release. A STEAL this morning at only $15 on WineAccess. Shipping included on 6.