2021 Otu Otuwhero Estate Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 750 ml

New Zealand is a remote island country about as big as Colorado. They’ve got an unusually tight and well-connected winemaking community, where everyone seems to know everyone—and the name we kept hearing crop up again and again on our Kiwi wine trail sojourns was Jeff Clarke.

A Penfolds alum once hailed by critic Tim Atkin MW as one of his “top six winemakers” in the world, Clarke is one of the major talents in either hemisphere—something you might expect to say about a talent behind a triple-digit-priced bottle, not an under-$20 stunner.

“Super intense and mouthwatering,” in the words of James Suckling, Clarke’s 2021 Otu Otuwhero Sauvignon Blanc hails not just from Marlborough, New Zealand’s hotbed of Sauvignon Blanc, but its coldest, driest, windiest subregion.

In these southerly reaches of Marlborough, the growing season seems to go on forever, coaxing out a juicy ripeness that’s the perfect counterpoint to the razor-like acidity you can count on in Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

Otu’s estate vineyards are sandwiched between snowy mountain ridges and the coastline of the south Pacific Ocean, and this wine was grown on steep, terraced, north-facing blocks that are positively drenched in sunshine. Its intensity reflects the extremity of the conditions that influence the grapes.

When this bottle came across the transom, it became clear why Clarke’s talent has gotten as much attention as it has. Wine Enthusiast thrilled to it as “textbook Marlborough Sauvignon” that’s “bright, extroverted, and ultrarefreshing,” closing on a “citrusy finish [that] makes taking another sip an easy endeavor.”

This is an absolute DOOZY of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc—a racy, cutting, New World stunner.