Dog Point Chardonnay 2003
Tangy Wet Dog
The attitude of a wineries staff is hugely important to its success. The right stuff is a mixture of love for wine and winemaking, joie de vivre, and a shared respect for the company for which they work.
That was the culture at Marlborough’s Cloudy Bay winery when James Healey and Ivan Sutherland worked there, Healey as winemaker and Sutherland as viticulturist. They now have their own label, Dog Point Vineyards and there is an aura of success, an assumption that they will make good wine, and sell it for respectably high prices.
They have been in Auckland, travelling the country in Healy’s 34-year-old Holden Kingswood, to market the wines of their second vintage, a sauvignon blanc from 004, and a chardonnay and pinot noir from 2003. Any of the wines would have qualified for this spot. I chose the chardonnay. The sauvignon is taught and refined, whole-bunch pressed, lees stirred and barrel aged, and the pinot is plums and cherries fruity, with grainy tannin and an appealing firmness in its aftertaste. The chardonnay was barrel fermented with wild yeast and has a deliciously tangy wine with a dash of toasty oak, the flavours of grapefruit and lemon, and a dry intense aftertaste.
Tim Harris