Today is International Sauvignon Blanc Day, a fitting celebration for our country’s flagship wine.
Although Sauvignon Blanc may originally be from France, it has found a home in New Zealand. Sauvignon Blanc was first produced on our shores for the first time in the 1970s and has soon risen to be the most widely planted variety.
The grapes used to make Sauvignon Blanc are a parent grape of Cabernet Sauvignon, and its history is at least 500 years old.
Sauvignon Blanc comprises 72 percent of New Zealand’s overall wine production, and nationally over 25,000 hectares of vineyard land are devoted to growing the grape.
Nearly three-quarters of all Sauvignon Blanc made in New Zealand comes from the Marlborough region, with 22,000 hectares. Hawkes Bay follows with 1,000 hectares, and Nelson with 0.6 hectares.
The total production from New Zealand every year is approximately 302,000 tonnes of Sauvignon Blanc every year, and is 86 percent of what we ship internationally of all homegrown wines.
