Clos Henri Bel Echo Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand 2017
The intense yet fine bouquet is laden with ripe gooseberry, magnolia and a chalky minerality. A soft minty freshness highlights the herbaceous side of the variety. The vibrant, lemony curd richness of the palate has a fresh acid backbone, demonstrating great balance and restraint.
Bel Echo, (French for Beautiful Echo) is a terroir selection of our estate’s less conventional soil type. We consider Bel Echo somewhat adventurous in style, representing the opposite or ‘echo’ of our more traditional Clos Henri wines.
Grown predominantly on our 2 clay blocks, this wine has more roundness and richness than Sauvignon on our river stone soils. The heavy clay soil naturally has good water retention and avoids excess vigour. Acting as a sponge, the clay holds excess water when it rains and releases it slowly to the vine when the soil is dry - this assists in a consistent and smooth grape ripening period.
The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks to retain fruit elegance and flavour; it is then aged on fine yeast lees for eight months with lees stirring. Lees stirring allows us to stabilise the wine naturally, fining the wine only once before a light filtration. Our objective is to reveal expressive aromas of tropical fruits, a chalky minerality and to get a round mouth feel, while keeping natural weight on the palate obtained from the clay.
| Winery | Clos Henri |
|---|---|
| Country | New Zealand |
| Region | South Island (NZ) |
| Specific Appellation | Marlborough |
| Wine Type | White Wine |
| Grape variety | Sauvignon Blanc |
| Bottle Size | Bottle |
| Vintage | 2017 |
Browse all Clos Henri Wines
Nestled under the southern foothills of Marlborough’s Wairau Valley, Clos Henri is the wine estate meticulously established and organically run by the famous Sancerre wine growing family of Henri Bourgeois.
Uniting 10 generations of winegrowing know-how from the Bourgeois family, Clos Henri crafts textural and elegant wines, capturing the intense Marlborough character with the aim to reveal the identity of the Clos Henri terroir and a true sense of place in the wines.
From the three different soil types of the estate, partially comprised of a clay hill slope, the family uses the best of French and New World winegrowing techniques to capture the essence of Marlborough’s intense character and reveal the identity and depth of the Clos Henri terroir.
