Organic. We’re not usually the biggest fans of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. But Mike Paterson is Mike Paterson (Corofin)—a talented grower and maker whom we respect enormously. As you would expect from a producer of this calibre, Meltwater’s hand-crafted Marlborough Sauvignon hits all the right notes, with considerably more texture and interest than this category typically delivers. For a start, it’s low-cropped from a single, certified-organic vineyard in the southern foothills of the Wairau Valley. The grapes were hand-harvested into small bins and fermented with indigenous yeast in tank—again, with the exception of stainless-steel fermentation, these practices are considered outside the norm for the category. The wine then rested on fine lees for nine months.