在 Seagram 早期时期，蒙大拿州的 Cloudy Bay 品尝了它长相思系列葡萄酒，这个系列可以追溯到 1979 年和 1980 年的产年。虽然蒙大拿州是 1975 年第一个种植长相思的生产商之一，并于 1973 年在 Marlborough 购买了约 1620 公顷土地，但 Marlborough 的其他早期投资者之一是 David Hohnen，他于 1985 年创立了 Cloudy Bay，使其成为当地前五家酿酒厂之一。Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 很快就成为了新西兰著名的葡萄酒风格。Cloudy Bay 刚刚推出了 2022 年份的长相思葡萄酒，本月初，现任酿酒师 Daniel Sorrell 也与他一起购买了一些旧瓶长相思，以供交易者品鉴。这部分是为了与新的 2022 年份进行对比和比较，同时也是为了观察葡萄酒如何随着时间演变，以及证明许多人预期的一点：新西兰长相思确实能够以令人兴奋的方式陈酿。
最近，在 Cloudy Bay 的所有长相思图书馆库存中，Sorrell 品尝并重新装瓶，只保留那些他满意的葡萄酒。他选择了他认为特别适合陈酿年份——2003、2006 和2019年。这一切都是“最温暖和最早收获”的结果，而不是某些人可能认为的大规模生产商。Cloudy Bay 自从 David Hohnen 在80年代中叶最初购买土地以来，就没有搬迁过农田，他们的小规模生产也低于该地区许多酿酒厂。
"We're different in Marlborough," Sorrell said. "We're small, and we only have vineyards in the Wairau Valley. They're on ancient riverbeds, in free-draining alluvial soils. We strive to get more than twelve tons per hectare. We like to pick early but are looking for material and flavor." Compared to many other producers, their glass contains more.
"All is separate," he said of the winery's approach in the vintage year of '22. "In '22, we made a total of 107 different blocks; we tasted every variety block by block to select fruit that fit our style, while the rest were sold off in bulk."
Despite selling out each year, Sorrel believes this method is crucial for maintaining brand image. In years like '21 when everything went well—"the best vintage I've experienced since joining the company seven years ago"—only four to five percent of grapes didn't make it into wine production. This year (2022), however, saw a quarter fail quality standards—a rate near thirty percent was seen in '17.
"It's been a pretty wet year," Sorrel continued about the challenges faced during harvest time when flowers bloom successfully leading up potentially large yields." We did extensive pruning between vines to create optimal balance within them partly because of this reason; as a result we could harvest early because fruits ripened faster which was important this season; before rain set in we managed to pick much and only lost one vineyard's crop if needed—within seven days we can gather all fruit whereas today with our third harvester it has become easier.” Everything is close by so they can quickly bring grapes into the winery.
"This has been a challenging harvest season—and indeed proved that adversity often brings out its best results," he concluded about last year's vintages proving resilience despite harsh weather conditions: "In these tougher times we really saw what strength lies within our vineyards' importance—despite harsh weather still perfect fruits were produced—this truly stands out."
