Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc

Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc

Villa Maria touts "New Zealand's Most Awarded Wines for 30 Years" on this bottle of Private Bin Marlborough Savignon Blanc. I was excited to open it on this snowy day in Flagstaff, AZ.

The label promises that this wine is "bursting with ripe tropical and gooseberry aromas" so I thought it might add to the feeling of being on a tropical holiday on this already-festive snow day.

Alas, swirl after swirl would not break loose tropical aromas. Since I've never tasted gooseberries, I can't say if the second promise was broken or not. Although I did google gooseberries and found that "most liken the unripe gooseberry in taste to a sour grape."  Hmmmm... the Villa Maria Private Bin Marlborough 2009 Savignon Blanc certainly is zingy. The winery says it's the "racy acidity." Yes, I like the smooth, racy acidity very much.

I was disappointed because the price of this wine ($19.99 USD) gave me expectations that is would  surpass other New Zealand wines of lesser price points. I usually don't pay more than 10 bucks for a bottle of good wine. (Proving once again that a wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good.) I found the Villa Marie on sale at Safeway this week.

This experience won't stop me from trying other Villa Marie wines. Only after I purchased this bottle did I realize that the fruit came from many vineyards across the Marlborough region. Next time I'll try one of Villa Maria's single-vineyard wines.

By the way, the idiomatic expression  playing gooseberry used by Brits and Canadians is similar to the term being a third wheel used in the U.S. Probably because gooseberries grow in clumps of three.  

Too bad that even though I day-hiked and picked agates at neighboring Gooseberry Falls State Park when I lived in Duluth, Minnesota, I never did pick or taste one of those rascals. Gooseberries, that is.

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Stacey Wittig is an Arizona Travel writer that writes about food and wine.

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