Wine producers in New Zealand’s premier Sauvignon Blanc region Marlborough were shocked last week to find that the winner of the Sauvignon Blanc Trophy in the important Bragato Awards (named after the country’s pioneer viticulturist – see Oxford Companion to Wine) was an alien. Amor-Bendall Sauvignon Blanc 2004 was reared in Gisborne on the east coast of the NorthIsland which has hardly any reputation for Sauvignon to speak of. Gisborne nurseryman Noel Amor harvested a small crop from some new clones of Sauvignon Blanc that he was growing for budwood.
Noel Amor told Bob Campbell MW, who passed...