Hans Herzog ‘Sur Lie’ Sauvignon Blanc 2019 from Marlborough is a wild, golden, Bordeaux‑inspired take on Sauvignon/Semillon, showing dried hay, herbal tea, pine bark, old wood and dried flowers rather than the usual passionfruit hit, layered over savoury citrus peel and subtle stone fruits. The palate is pure, dry and full‑bodied, hugely concentrated from ultra‑low yields, with notes of white peach, red grapefruit, resinous herbs and intense minerality riding on silky lees texture and vivid acidity.

This is serious food wine – think grilled fish with herb butter, baked chicken, rich shellfish, goats cheese or washed‑rind cheeses, where that weight, grip and savoury complexity really earn their keep. It also works brilliantly with roasted vegetables, creamy seafood pastas and more adventurous fine‑dining dishes that usually call for top white Bordeaux.

Hans Herzog ‘Sur Lie’ Sauvignon Blanc 2019 spends around 20 months in 500‑litre French oak puncheons on its lees with regular stirring, is wild‑fermented, unfined, lightly filtered, virtually bone‑dry and built to age a decade, with critics like John Szabo MS and Stephen Wong MW dropping it firmly in the mid‑90s bracket.