st.helier wrote:

> Growers remove much excessive leaf growth to allow optimum light levels and
> wind to flow through the vines.
>
> You see, over-ripening will cause mpz levels to drop too low, thus producing
> wines lacking that aggressive pungency associated with the wines.
>
> Another major factor is also the quite wide diurnal temperature range -
> maximums during the day seldom above 27/28 degr C - falling to 6/8 degr C at
> night.
>
> Careful viticultural practices (leaf plucking) attention to detail to ensure
> picking is done just at the right time, and viola - making SB NZ style is
> easy stuff - crush, press, filter, ferment, add a little Semillon (some
> vineyards do!); perhaps a little in older oak (again, some do!) bottle and
> four months later more of the same.

What a great post. A word that I have always used with reference to NZ
SBs is powerful. Aggressive pungency is exact. Seems to me that I have
also read that the vines get a tremendous number of days of sunlight
also. They are what Sancerres were 30 years ago. There are a few wines
produced from the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County that also develop
this pungency.