Light straw color; melon, orange, passionfruit, honeysuckle on the nose; melon, lime, passionfruit, grapefruit on the palate.
Fresh, brisk, crisp, food friendly, assertive acidity (3.24 pH), light-medium body, grassy notes and minerality appear on the finish. Classic KC effort—this wine is major reason Marlborough sauv blanc captured world market. Kim Crawford makes close to one million bottles each vintage, and they are a consistently good and fair representation of grassy, tart, food-friendly pours at nice price. When in doubt with food pairing, sauv blanc is default answer; when in doubt about which sauv blanc to buy, Kim Crawford is default answer.
Kim Crawford wines focus on flavor and value. Now a Constellation Brands product, the person Kim Crawford was a pioneer in New Zealand winemaking. First known for superb sauvignon blanc—six years after the founding of the winery in 1996 Crawford’s sauv blanc made Wine Spectator’s 100 best wines in the world list—KC also was innovative in bottling, turning to screw caps early because he believed it helped preserve and emphasize the fruit flavors. Today Kim Crawford is a world player in sauv blanc and, increasingly in pinot noir—the two varietal stars of New Zealand.
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough 2015 is textbook example of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, widely available. $14-18
Second photo: Kim Crawford sauv blanc vineyard, Kim Crawford
