Staete Landt Sauvignon Blanc Duchess "Wild Barrel Ferment" Marlborough 2023

Wine Orbit

Complex and engaging, the wine shows Granny Smith apple, basil, lemon peel, and oatmeal characters with a hint of roasted hazelnut. It's concentrated and richly expressed in the mouth, offering fleshy texture backed by beautifully pitched acidity, finishing impressively long and captivating.

Vivino

(472 bedømmelser, set over alle årgange, ”Højeste kvalitet for pengene af newzealandsk Sauvignon Blanc”, 09-04-2025)

Bob Campbell

Hand-picked grapes were selected from six vineyards before being whole-bunch pressed and fermented in old French barriques using indigenous yeasts. The result is a rich and textural wine with ripe varietal fruit flavours plus a hint of reductive funky struck flint character and nutty yeast lees flavours. Complex wine with character.

Wine Orbit

This is wonderful. The complex bouquet shows peach, oatmeal, almond and subtle savoury notes. It's concentrated and richly flavoured with excellent mid palate weight and texture. The wine is extremely long, expansive and seamless. Hand harvested, fermented in old French barriques then matured in barrels for 18 months.

Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

An alluring and deeply complex bouquet with scents of barrel ferment and wild flowers, spice and a touch of smoke the aromas of cape gooseberry and peach, meyer lemon and soft stone mineral suggestions. Youthful, textured, fruity, savoury, varietal and dry. Flavours mirror the bouquet with peach and citrus highlights, plenty of acidity and a lengthy saline finish. Delicious and ready to drink from purchase and through 2027.

James Suckling

This is bent into a more complex style with restrained fruit tones, thanks to barrel fermentation. The aromas of nettle, lime peel, apple and lime leaf are framed in a gently reductive shroud. On the palate there’s a taut core of lime-flavored fruit that hits a focused, long finish cleanly. Subtly creamy at the edges.

Wine Enthusiast

Fermented and matured in old oak barriques that add a rich, textural element as well as a gold hue, this opens with aromas of lemon, lime peel and a little toast. The citrus flows all the way through on the palate to the finish and acidity buoys. A food-friendly drop at peak now and over the next few years.

Falstaff

Fine tropical fruit, intense herbal spice, delicately positive petrol-like gooseberry fruit, intense wood note, very well integrated, black berries, very dense, mineral, black currants on the finish, white fruit on the aftertaste, has further aging potential

Natalie Maclean

From the Marlborough, South Island wine region, Staete Landt Duchess 2022 is produced from sustainably grown Sauvignon Blanc grapes and was wild yeast fermented in oak barrel. Dry, medium-bodied and vibrant with tropical fruit, fresh green herbs, bell pepper and pink grapefruit zest flavours silky-satin and brilliant on the palate, it's delicious now and has the structure, fruit and balance to drink through 2027.

David Lawrason

Value Rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) | Not your average NZ SB! From an earnest biodynamic producer this a very complex and intense sauvignon roiling in tropical pineapple, passion fruit, mint, ginger and spice (from barrel fermentation). It is full bodied, creamy and very rich, with all kinds of wood, vanilla and spice. A touch sweet but it is not residual sugar - just all out richness. The length is excellent to outstanding. Chill well. Tasted December 2024

Michael Godel

Value Rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) | The Duchess is Staete Land’s genesis of a sauvignon blanc fermented in wood and only its own indigenous yeasts used to set things in motion. That it has accomplished, to develop varietal maturity and complexities with thanks to the altruistic methodology, “and all the people cried, you're the one we've waited for.” Indeed because flavours are full, mouthfeel substantial and length guaranteed. All of this because of quality, purity and honesty. The Duke abides.

Wine Spectator

Spicy poached pear and mango flavors are generous and fleshy, with honeyed toast and a creamy texture, finishing with crisp acidity that brightens the flavors and gives them focus.

Robert Parker

Barrel fermented in older French oak using indigenous yeasts, the 2020 Duchess Sauvignon Blanc features some slightly funky aromas, but they function like the top-scents of stinky cheese, lending layers of depth and intrigue to underlying notes of white grapefruit and stone fruit. Medium-bodied in the mouth and with plenty of intensity and length, this is a lovely example of the texture and complexity that barrel fermentation can add to Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.