2022 Tinpot Hut Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 750 ml

Few wines are perfect for pouring from the minute you even start thinking about making dinner until long after the plates are cleared.

Tinpot Hut Sauvignon Blanc is one of them.

The home cook’s dream, this is a gorgeous example of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, one of the globes epicenters of the grape. Marlborough, on New Zealand’s South Island, contains over two-thirds of the grape plantings in the country, and it has stood as a standard bearer of Sauvignon Blanc growing for decades now—impressive, considering that the grape was first planted there in 1975, after other varieties fizzled. The region’s style of Sauv Blanc—juicy, rich in grapefruit and citrus, charged with bracing acidity—is famous the world over.

Winemaker Fiona Turner, her husband Hamish, and their tiny team work in the Marlborough coastal subzone of Blind River, which skirts the eastern edge of the island. Hamish manages their Home Block vineyard, which they planted in 2005, and today all of the wines they make bear the New Zealand Sustainable Winegrowing logo, which speaks to their environmentally friendly practices, as well as those followed by their vineyard partners.

The 2022 growing season in Marlborough, thanks to a nicely dry period from February 20th to March 20th, was kind to the crop of grapes, and particularly to the Home Block Vineyard. There, sunny but cool conditions late in the season concentrated the Sauvignon Blanc, allowing it to develop an extra jolt of citrus that bursts alongside Chablis-like elegance—a huge reason why this is such a palate-pleaser whether in the kitchen during prep hour, by the grill as the sun sets, and late into the night.