Section 94 is Dog Point’s barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc, widely regarded as the finest expression of this variety produced anywhere in New Zealand and one of the most original and structurally ambitious white wines to emerge from the southern hemisphere in recent decades. Named for the cadastral section of the Wairau Valley land on which the source vineyard was planted in 1992, Section 94 is fermented entirely with wild yeasts in older French oak barrels and aged for 18 months without fining. The result is a Sauvignon Blanc conceived in a tradition closer to Pouilly-Fumé or white Graves than to the aromatic, fruit-forward Marlborough mainstream.

The 2020 Marlborough growing season was warm and unusually dry, with only 45 millimetres of rainfall between January and April, less than 30% of the historical average. The resulting conditions produced grapes of exceptional concentration and natural structure, and for Section 94 this translated into a wine of impressive density and textural complexity. The whole-cluster pressing and lees-ageing regime captures a dimension of the fruit that machine-harvested and stainless-fermented Sauvignon Blanc cannot replicate, and in this warm vintage the wine opened to reveal roasted nuts, grilled pineapple, lemon oil and the characteristic gun smoke and struck-match reduction that defines the Section 94 style in its youth.

James Suckling awarded the 2020 Section 94 95 points, recognising this as one of the finest recent releases in a long run of consistently excellent vintages for this wine. Section 94 has fundamentally reshaped international perceptions of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc’s ceiling for complexity and age-worthiness: bottles with five or more years of cellaring regularly reveal a depth and tertiary complexity that bears no resemblance to the variety’s immediately aromatic profile in youth. It is an essential wine for any collector seriously engaged with southern hemisphere white wines.

Golden with a rich and complex nose of roasted hazelnuts, grilled pineapple, lemon oil, gun smoke, struck match and beeswax, with an underlying herbal and mineral thread. The palate is full-bodied and sumptuously textured with mouthwatering acidity, great focus and a long, smoky, complex finish. Will continue to develop through 2029.