2017 The King's Favour Sauvignon Blanc Waihopai Marlborough New Zealand 750 ml

Best Sauvignon Blanc Maker’s Latest is Fit for a King

Our Master of Wine Matt Deller recently shared a judging table at the Sydney International Wine Competition with legendary winemaker Brent Marris, whose 2017 King's Favour Sauvignon Blanc Waihopi had just racked up its second Gold Medal of the year. Over a few glasses of wine with Marris, Matt negotiated for first dibs on the 2017 King’s Favour. Marris is Marlborough’s first native-son winemaker and has scored several Producer of the Year awards and more than three dozen Gold Medals. King’s Favour is sourced from two exclusive blocks at Marris’s Waihopai River Vineyard. It is a gorgeously aromatic, fleshy and crisp Sauvignon Blanc that reminds us why we love it when Matt takes “time off” to fly halfway around the world to judge a competition: Because he tastes gems like this one, often months before their scores are published, and never fails to bring home the goods for Wine Access clients. Recommended case buy.

Our Chief Wine Officer may be a New Zealander, but it is as a Master of Wine that Matt Deller declares his homeland to be the top Sauvignon Blanc-producing country in the world. Marlborough, New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc hotbed, owes nothing less than its existence as a fine wine region to a spree of land purchases and vineyard plantings that were undertaken in the 1970s by Brent Marris’s family.

Marris’s pedigree in Marlborough may only be equaled by his successes: His wines have won international competitions, as well as Decanter’s award for Best New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Thoroughly committed to their Marlborough heritage, all of Marris’s wines are estate-grown, and the blocks that produce King’s Favour were hand-selected for their expression of the best of the region. Our Master of Wine once managed the portfolio of New Zealand’s most popular producer of Sauvignon Blanc — impressing him is no small feat.