New Zealand was 150 years later than Australia in discovering that its cool maritime climate was ideal for making high quality wines with a more European profile. The country has been on a rollercoaster ride in the past decades trying figure out its microclimates, twisting its way through bouts of phylloxera, turning through excessive vine vigour that produced mean-green wine styles (thanks greatly to the help of wise Viticulturists such Richard Smart who created new techniques in the vineyard) and finally arriving in a place that knows what should be planted where and how to work with it. Sauvignon from Marlborough has made New Zealand one varietal wonder, unless you also know cool Otago, land of great Pinot Noir, or the southern end of the Northern island, Martinborough, the home to a smaller wine community of growers who made their fortunes in other businesses first and are generally seeking the “good life” of a vigneron. The tendency in Martinborough is make wine in a “whatever-it-takes” fashion. We certainly see that attention in the wines of The Martinborough Winery; richly styled Sauvignon that does not run with the pack of pea-pod smelling aggressive brutes, and Pinot Noir that escapes the cranberry- herbal tones and reminiscent of a more Burgundian flavour.