Coming from Seresin’s Home Vineyard, the 2009 Marama Sauvignon Blanc was naturally fermented and aged for 17 months in French oak barriques, 25% new. It displays a pronounced nose of ripe grapefruit and cedar over baking bread, honeysuckle and orange blossom. The full bodied palate fills the mouth with zesty citrus, oak and stone fruit flavors with crisp acidity and a long finish that imparts suggestions of fresh herbs and minerals. Approachable now, it should age gracefully, drinking to 2016+. Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA

The 2006 Marama Sauvignon Blanc is again wild ferment spending 14 months in oak, 20% new. The oak is very well integrated within the aromatics with touches of gooseberry and almond developing with aeration, the palate smooth, perhaps just a little low in acidity but with nuances of coconut and almond coming through on the elegant finish. Cinematographer Michael Seresin does not own Harry Potter’s magic wand to make great Marlborough wine, but he does have the second best thing in the form of estate manager Colin Ross, an Australian who makes Nicolas Joly look a lightweight biodynamist. Having purchased his first 167-acre parcel of vines in the Wairau in 1992 that constitutes the “Home Vineyard,” Seresin’s wines debuted with the 1996 vintage; since then he has purchased the “Raupo Creek Vineyard” in Omaka, which is undergoing organic conversion and the “Tatou Vineyard” at the western end of the Wairau Valley. All fruit is sourced from these parcels, hand-picked and sorted before being whole-bunch pressed with young English-born winemaker Clive Dougall in charge of the winemaking. Seresin is certainly a name to look out for, producing some wonderful, complex, natural wines.Various American importers, including Martin Scott Wines, Lake Success, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808 and Henry Wine Group, Benicia, CA; tel. (707) 745-8500; Fax (707) 745-8421

This is an intriguing attempt at stretching the boundaries of Marlborough Sauvignon, featuring natural yeasts, barrel fermentation and sur lie aging. The result is a wine with somewhat weird ginger, cashew and coffee-like scents, but also some attractive grapefruit and nectarine flavors. Full and round in the mouth, it finishes dry and minerally.——J.C.(11/1/2006)—— 88