Dog Point Chardonnay

Dog Point Chardonnay shows how good Marlborough can be at producing Chardonnays.

There is an elegance here that invites comparison with fine premier cru white Burgundy.

Ripe pineapple gets a welcome aromatic lift from toasty oak, mineral and a whiff of matchstick, deftly integrated during 18 months in French barrels.

Dog Point Chardonnay is a perfect match for buttery seafood dishes such as lobster.

Bouquet: Ripe citrus, minerality, roasted nuts, toasty and savoury.

Palate: Full bodied with ripe citrus with chalky complexity and roasted nuts.

Food match: Shellfish, fish, white meats and BBQ rack of pork.

Dog Point Chardonnay Vineyard combines the considerable winegrowing experience of Ivan Sutherland and James Healy, the former chief viticulturist and head winemaker at New Zealand's Cloudy Bay.

Once Dog Point was the name given by early European settlers to the rough patch of land where stray dogs gathered, forming an unruly pack.

Now it is both a wine label and a vineyard, set up by Ivan and Margaret Sutherland and James and Wendy Healy, after James and Ivan met working at Cloudy Bay.

It’s to Dog Point (run by another Cloudy Bay escapee, Kevin Judd), rather than Cloudy Bay, that those in the know would go for an upmarket Chardonnay fix.

The name Dog Point dates from the earliest European settlement of Marlborough and the introduction of sheep to the district.

These were days of few fences, of boundary riders and "boundary keeping dogs". Shepherds' dogs sometimes became lost or wandered off and eventually bred into a marauding pack which attacked local flocks.

Their home was a tussock and scrub covered hill, overlooking the Wairau Plains, designated by the early settlers as Dog Point.

Hay Wines delivers free of charge in the Gloucestershire - Worcestershire - Herefordshire - Stratford upon Avon and surrounding areas.

dogpoint.co.nz

Dog Point Chardonnay - Hay Wines