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Available Australia wide at leading fine wine retailers including Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Liquorland, Liquor Legends, Thirsty Camel, Porters, IGA etc

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Get in touch at info@catalinasounds.co.nz to locate our wines in these countries:

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Sauvignon Blanc of The Year 2025

Decades in the making, and not a moment too late, we are honoured to receive the 2025 London Wine Competition award of Sauvignon Blanc of the Year on our 2024 Catalina Sounds Sauvignon Blanc. Up against heavy competition of wines from all over the world and an illustrious judging panel consisting of 9 Masters of Wine, 75 wine professionals and 6 Master Sommeliers, this is immense recognition!

At Catalina Sounds we have built our reputation for crafting nuanced, site-driven expressions of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Our winery is led by a small team that includes winemaker Matthew Ward and vineyard manager Fraser Brown.

“When we set out to make wines in 2005, establishing the winery and vineyard, we knew at our core that Sauvignon Blanc would be our hero, and it’s a defining moment on our journey to receive this award from the London Wine Competition” says Matt. Today, we produce three different Sauvignon Blancs, as well as a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir across two ranges, the Estate range and the Single Vineyard range.

Adored at home in New Zealand, and on shores near and very far, our wines are always a pure expression of place, of our spectacular Marlborough wine region. Sourced from exclusive vineyards in the Southern Valleys and the Wairau Valley, and with a high portion of fruit from our Estate, the Sound of White Vineyard in the Waihopai Valley; these wines are distinct in every way, shape and form.

Pictured: Sound of White Vineyard, planted in 2008

About the wine

The 2024 vintage of Catalina Sounds Sauvignon Blanc is a true reflection of a unique Marlborough season, in fact the driest summer in 90 years. The year brought warm, dry weather and a rare late frost, which meant fewer grapes but exceptional quality. The harvest was the earliest and fastest in years, with pristine fruit and smaller bunches that excited Matt’s team in the winery. In the glass, this wine shines with pale straw and green hues, offering inviting aromas of ripe citrus peel, candy apple, and a hint of wet stone. The first sip is juicy and mouthwatering, with flavours of preserved lemon and stone fruits, all carried by a subtle, salty freshness and a lovely, lingering texture.

As Fraser notes, “this Sauvignon Blanc is crafted from grapes grown in the Waihopai Valley and select grower vineyards most of which we have worked with for more than 15 years”. What does that impart to the wine? Well, the Southern Valleys brings a mineral focus and extra texture, while the Wairau fruit adds classic citrus and gentle tropical notes. The winemaking approach is simple and careful, letting each vineyard’s character shine, with a small portion aged in large oak vessels for extra depth. The result is a vegan-friendly wine that’s vibrant, textured, and perfect for enjoying with fresh seafood, crisp green summer salads, or on its own by the pool. It’s a wine to enjoy now or over the next few years, especially when you want something fresh, lively, and distinctly Marlborough. As always, best served chilled and in our glass of choice, the Plumm Three No.2 Glass. Our wines are certified with Appellation Marlborough Wine and Sustainable Wine Growing New Zealand.

Pictured: Recreational use of the Catalina on the Marlborough Sounds in the 1940's

About the name

The name Catalina Sounds evolved from the majestic Catalina flying boats that played a vital role across the South Pacific during and after World War II. New Zealand’s famous and largest warbird, the Catalina is a rare sight, in fact there are only a handful of these beautiful, iconic planes left in the world today. Our proximity to the Marlborough Sounds, a fjord like coastal body of water and our biggest climatic influence perfectly encapsulates the core of nature, sustainability and history that our winery embodies.

Pictured: The Marlborough Sounds, as depicted on our labels

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Cheers to a summer of Sauvignon Blanc with Catalina Sounds!

 

Vintage Report 2025

As the last few ferments bubble their way to the finish line and the sun begins to set on another vintage here at Catalina Sounds, it’s always great to reflect on the season that’s been, so let’s start back in September 2024.

Bud burst was quite early, up to 14 days earlier in some vineyards against records from the last 10 years – this signalled the potential for a very early harvest. There was plenty of buzz and excitement when those first shoots began coming out – though that quickly turned to watching forecasts for frosts, thankfully there were none of significance this season. Rainfall had been low and was well below the long-term average going into October.

Late October and through November, temperatures climbed, the weather was stunning, and Marlborough had had little to no rainfall. These were superb conditions and when combined with an early budburst, thoughts went quickly to “how early is harvest going to be?!”.

December flipped the script completely though and from late December through to late January, the weather was cool, grey, smattered with drizzly showers and this put the brakes on any thoughts of an early vintage.

While the weather balanced itself out with swings back and forth, the abundance of fruit on the vine made us wary and our mindset quickly shifted to reducing yields in our vineyards, aiming for balance so that fruit ripens evenly.

Yields across Marlborough in 2025 were likely some of the highest there have been to date. As an industry, a mature mindset for most was to cap yields, drop fruit and take not a berry more than can be sold. This was also our modus operandi, and we took to dropping fruit across our vineyards, both at Sound of White and grower blocks, trying to aim for the unicorn situation where you have just enough and no more.

Harvest started on the 13th of March with young vine Sauvignon Blanc in our early ripening vineyards in Renwick. What felt like a slow start continued for the next 3.5 weeks, where healthy blocks were allowed to slowly ripen, and that they did. Blocks were harvested when ripe, with the last block from our Sound of White vineyard being harvested on the 7th of April.

While the ferments finish off, I’m quietly looking forward to a grading tasting in due course. There is a uniqueness to the wines so far, with sub-regions expressing their typicity well. The warm end to the season has given fruit with lower natural acidity, the Sauvignon certainly isn’t as bracing as it can be so early after harvest.

Speaking of Marlborough in general, this vintage is certainly one for consumers to be wary of brands they’re buying. Those companies that chose the path of least resistance and didn’t manage their yields or inputs will certainly come up against those who chose to chase quality in a year where mother nature turned up the volume.

Looking forward to sharing the wines, all in good time.

Vintage Report 2024

The dust is starting to settle on vintage 2024 as ferments quietly tick away and the first few Sauvignons have finished ferment. The winery smells truly delicious currently. 

A warm and dry season, late season frost and a cooler start to the flowering period in December created low-yields across much of the region. As an average our estate and grower blocks were 25-30% down, with a surprising number of Sauvignon vineyards yielding single digits. Fruit was hanging pristinely on the vine with smaller than usual bunches. With the quality of fruit in 2024 I know many in Marlborough are quietly brimming with excitement.

It was a dream run with little disease pressure, as Marlborough had the driest summer on record. Harvest started on the 13th of March and was more of a sprint than a marathon, with the last block coming in on the 30th of March. The earliest finish to harvest many can remember.

The resulting wines will be somewhat bolder than usual with excellent flavour and expression. Once the ferments are finished, they will spend time on lees without racking to build further palate weight and complexity. This year time is on our side and the wines will certainly benefit not being rushed to market.

Cheers to a truly remarkable 2024 season.

 

Matt Ward

15/04/2023  

Sound of Summer 18NOV23

Buy your tickets to Sound of Summer at Sound of White Vineyard here!

Sound of Summer is our third event at Sound of White Vineyard in collaboration with Vinyl in The Vines, local beer, spirits and food providers on Saturday November 18th 2023. 

Settle in for a sunny afternoon of sounds & enjoy fantastic local food & wine at the picturesque Sound of White Vineyard in Blenheim. The event is family friendly, with picnic rugs and games for the kids available. Kids under 16 enter free.

If you're looking for the perfect summer event in Blenheim, Marlborough, Sound of Summer is it! For more details and ticket information visit eventfinda. 

 

Vintage Report 2023

2023 required nerves of steel to navigate a warm and humid growing season. Mother Nature did her best to keep us on our toes and eventually turned on the charm with warm, dry weather in January, which carried through into harvest.

Ripening was a long game in 2023 – our yield estimates in January showed the potential was avg. or above. Given the growing season leading up to that point, the decision was made to target those blocks that had higher than avg. yields and reduce bunch numbers per vine so our yield and fruit was ‘quality focussed’ and not driven by volume. This serves as a positive with increased flavour,  ripeness and reduced disease pressure.

Marlborough experienced more Growing Degree Days (GDD >10°) than 3 of the last 4 seasons and nearly 100 more GDD than the long-term average. This was mixed with more rainfall than 3 of the last 4 seasons, though marginally less than the LTA. Most of which came through before Christmas. The timing on important phenology markers such as bud burst, flowering and time to reach 8° Brix was longer than usual which flowed through to harvest dates being a week or more later in some cases.

Harvest started traditionally with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as the earlier varietals and they didn’t disappoint once in the winery. Smaller than expected yields delivered pristine, sun-ripened fruit with exceptionally delicious flavour. The extra hang-time on the vine has really helped to concentrate the varietal characters and also retain vibrancy – it was a real balance this year to make those picking decisions when total acids were hanging in there for dear life. As harvest moved on, sugars continued to rise and acidity mellowed out nicely. Sauvignon Blanc followed suitably and while the large, industry corporates were out harvesting green, unripe fruit well before anyone else (for reasons unknown to anyone else…), those serious about respecting the season and fruit held out until flavour and balance was in the harvest window. Those decisions and the resulting reward will be seen in the final quality of the wine.

The added beauty of 2023 was a life without COVID restrictions which has seen the return of experienced international winemakers, tourists, backpackers and RSE workers. Wineries and vineyards running a full and experienced team made for a steady and structured harvest that was super smooth and slick. 2023 has all the elements and markings of a special and unique harvest that will continue to shine through the wines as they’re released in the coming months and beyond.

For now though, ferments are still ticking through and we’re about half way through pressing our Pinot Noir off skins and into barrels – something I love doing on the warm autumn days as the hustle subsides and quiet calm returns to the cellars.

Looking forward to tasting and sharing the new releases with you all in the coming months.

Sound of Summer 28JAN23

All ticket & transport information can be found on the event page here.

Catalina Sounds presents the second event in collaboration with the Vinyl in the Vines DJ collective - Sound of Summer at Sound of White Vineyard on January 28th 2023. 

Last January we just hosted our inaugural Vinyl in the Vines event, sneaking in before Marlborough moved to red traffic lights, and we're so glad we did. After such a successfull day, we have decided to welcome you back to our special vineyard in the Waihopai Valley. 

Settle in for a sunny afternoon of funky vinyl sounds supplied by DJs Mr Slice, Dai and Boom & enjoy fantastic local food & wine.

In addition to the Catalina Sounds bar, we will have plenty of beer & gin provided by our stellar partners! Wine by Catalina Sounds & Lawsons Dry Hills. Beer by Boom Town. Gin by Roots Gin. Food by Cloudy Bay Clams & Boom Chef and La Rua. 

Kids are welcome and will have a dedicated area to enjoy fun toys and games on the day. 

Vintage Report 2022

I’ve been out tasting and sampling our vineyards over the last few days for maturity – measuring the accumulating sugar, the acid balance and also monitoring disease pressure. It looks like we might kick-off with a small amount of Chardonnay around the week of the 14th, which is exciting! Pinot Noir will be coming in a close second, with much of the Sauvignon Blanc looking like it will be late March, early April, which is slightly later than the previous few years.

The growing season has been quite the ride so far – significant rainfall in winter and early spring gave the vines a massive head start and we all felt like we were chasing our tails in to December to keep up with vine growth. December and January were hot and dry – deviating from the La Ninã weather pattern New Zealand was in. An ex-tropical cyclone paid a visit at the start of February which had everyone on the edge of their seats as veraison was really kicking in, but the ground was parched and soaked it up pretty quickly.

The fruit set has been super favourable compared to last year and we’re grateful for this! We have been working hard to ensure we’re aiming for quality though, and have dropped excess fruit and hand leaf plucked to keep the vines in balance and give plenty of airflow to keep disease pressure low. We’re going to see the benefits of this as we see warmer, summer like temperatures again for the next couple of weeks which will bump ripening along.

All our 2021 wines are in bottle, other than our single vineyard Sound of White Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which is still sitting quietly in barrel until we blend and bottle in June. We all wait in anticipation now as the vines enter their final stretch before harvesting and getting a well-earned break. I think all involved in the industry will need the same once everything is off the vine and quietly fermenting in tank.

Cheers to a safe and happy harvest ahead!

Vintage Report 2021

2021 is moving along quickly and although the new vintage wines have been resting in tank and barrel for about 6 weeks now it feels like we were picking only yesterday. It’s a nice time to reflect on vintage and the season that’s been, just as we look at blending our first Sauvignon Blanc; the wines are settled and looking “themselves” now.

This vintage felt somewhat uneventful – in a good way, as it definitely had its nuances compared to other vintages over the last decade. Marlborough’s central Wairau Valley had very low yields due to multiple factors – three dry summers in a row, early September frosts and cool, wet weather during flowering seem to have had a compounding effect. Though Marlborough appears small, the southern valleys and western Wairau valley were mostly unaffected by the weather as they tend to flower later than the central valley. A testament to this is our Sound of White vineyard in the Waihopai Valley, which gave us slightly more fruit than 2020 (much to our fastidious vineyard manager, Fraser Brown’s delight!). The weather was perfect apart from a low that brought much needed rain towards the end of picking at the beginning of April. With light canopies and low disease pressure it was possible to hang the last fruit through this and it came into the winery looking stunning.

Harvest was earlier than usual, by about 7 – 10 days than 2020 for some blocks, which relates back to the lower yields and warm, dry summer. Quality across the board is excellent with the wines showing a touch less restraint compared to 2020.

It’s also an exciting time for me as our first Catalina Sounds Chardonnay from the beautiful 2020 vintage is set to touch down on the palates of wine lovers in Australia and New Zealand in July. I’ve truly loved these vintages for Chardonnay, as they’ve really allowed a minimal intervention approach with clean, ripe fruit and lashings of juicy minerality. Nothing added and nothing taken away, just as wine should be.