Heath: I don’t want to make cookie-cutter Sauvignon

While a certain continuity of style is important for such a commercially successful brand as Cloudy Bay, its senior winemaker, Tim Heath, says he has no interest in making “cookie-cutter Sauvignon”.

Cloudy Bay’s senior winemaker, Tim Heath, isn’t interest in making cookie-cutter Sauvignon

Speaking to the drinks business during a recent tasting of the latest releases in the Cloudy Bay range at the Moët Hennessy UK office in London, Heath said:

“I don’t want to make uniform, cookie-cutter Sauvignon each year – it needs to speak of the season, but also fit into a broader family style. I’m going for an elegant and graceful style of Sauvignon – I want balance, finesse and sophistication rather than outright fruit intensity.

“I don’t want our Sauvignon to get too blousy and tropical. I’m inspired by the Sauvignons from Sancerre, which are more structurally driven rather than turning the intensity knob up.

“I barrel ferment 5% of the wine in large oak casks for the subliminal effect of depth, but you have to be careful with oak when it comes to Sauvignon as it can be knocked out of balance pretty quickly.”

As for the vintage conditions this year, Heath described 2017 as “a mixed bag”. “Achieving ripeness was quite a challenge as it was a wetter year than normal so we needed to be careful with our decision making,” he told db.

“I’m happy with what we’ve got and actually prefer the 2017 vintage of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon to 2016 as it’s denser with more succulent fruit, whereas 2016 is more tight and nervous in style. 2017 has more fruit weight and concentration,” he added.

On the subject of the commoditisation of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc due to its commercial success, Heath puts it down to the region coming of age.

“There are two games going on in Marlborough: the premium game and winemakers with a quality focus, and the wines that sit below that.

“I think it’s part of growing up as a region and that people make too much of a big deal about the cheaper Sauvignon on the market. There is oversupply in lots of regions, take Bordeaux for example.

“The land that was available for planting now has come to an end, and as demand continues to grow for premium Sauvignon then the cheaper wines will be re-absorbed,” he said.

“There’s a lot more stylistic diversity with Marlborough Sauvignon now – people need to get out to taste the wines and discover that for themselves.

“Our Te Koko Sauvignon has a niche but loyal following. It shows another side of what we can be and has more dried herbs, jasmine and honeysuckle aromatics.

“New Zealand Sauvignon can look like anything you want it to. It’s all about how the fruit is handled. Sauvignon lends itself to a lot of different interpretations. Producers are playing around on the fringe a bit, which is a good thing,” he said.

Heath remains tight-lipped about Cloudy Bay’s annual production, admitting that not revealing their figures doesn’t always work in their favour.

“Because we don’t reveal our annual production people think we make a lot more Cloudy Bay Sauvignon than we really do and are surprised to hear that we run out of it early in some vintages like 2015, when yields were down by 25%,” he said.

When it comes to Marlborough Pinot, Heath believes the region producers a similar style to those found in the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy.

“Marlborough’s Pinot Noir vineyards are old enough now that we don’t need to rely on trickery to pump them up and make them what they’re not.

“There are only so many sites that work for Pinot in New Zealand, so I wouldn’t want to see production increase just for the sake of it, as it would undo all the hard work we’ve been doing on site selection,” he said.