2022 vintage

90/100 | James Suckling 
A bright and tangy white with aromas of green apples, nettles, lemongrass and juniper berries. Some sea shells. Medium-bodied with sharp acidity and a refreshing, flinty finish. From organically grown grapes. Vegan.

2021 vintage

94/100 points | Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier
A striking bouquet with precise, and distinctive aromas of fresh peach and tropical fruits, grapefruit peel and lemon, fresh herbs of sage and thyme and a core of mineral activity. Intense and fruity on the palate with a youthful acid line leading to flavours of pineapple and fresh apple, peach and fresh herbs

93/100 | Candice Chow
Bright, pale straw-yellow, even colour throughout. This nose is soft with bright aromas of Kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass underlying green apple, lime, peas and a hint of floral. Medium-light bodied, salivating palate packed with lime, tangerine and Granny Smith opened up to white spice melded with lemongrass, lime leaf, subtle floral and saline. The fruit is fresh and pure with good energy, supported by mouthwatering acid tension. Fine-textured phenolic extraction contributes to a silky mouthfeel. This is a crisp Sauvignon Blanc with good energy and purity on a fine-detailed palate. Match with steamed clams and pan-fried sole

5 stars | Yvonne Lorkin 
Classic crushed jalapeno and basil washed down with passionfruit and lemon gelato is all the good stuff you’ll ever need in Marlborough sauvignon, and this has it in spades. Lashings of lemongrass flesh out the mid-palate and there’s a rich, multi-layered mid-palate punch and a super-stylish, herbaceous finish in every sip of this shiny new organic example from the folks at Zephyr. Love it!

92/100 | Huon Hooke
Pale colour and a pungent passionfruit aroma—in a more typical Marlborough style than the 2020. The palate is likewise very powerful and more weighty than the 2020. The acidity is zesty and piercing, with some sweetness that balances, it but it’s still relatively, low leading to a very dry, tangy finish.

93/100 | Wine Rater
A stylishly aromatic wine, with invigorating, wild/sauvage, punchy aromas – quite Sancerre-like – showing funky grapefruit notes, goats cheese, thyme, white pepper. There’s a lot going on. A taut, dry, textural, vivacious style with crushed seashell, mouth-puckering acidity completed by a fine lingering finish. Compelling, appetising wine.

2020 vintage

95/100 | Cameron Douglas, Decanter Magazine – Jan 2021
A satin texture is contrasted by crisp and refreshing acidity, a core of fruits from melon to white peach and gooseberry. Enticing and complete with a lick of sea salt, mineral and blossoms on the finish. Delicious, complete and ready. Best from today through 2025+. Outstanding.

5 Stars | Angie Atkinson, The Wine Writer
Certified organic, a single vineyard expression from established vines in the Dillions Point subregion of Marlborough. Mouth watering aromas of citrus, passionfruit, fresh pineapple with subtle herbaceous notes and hints of gooseberry. A structured wine, the palate is punchy and intense with juicy lemon and mandarin, lime zest and gooseberries with bold but linear acidity. White stone fruit and chalky mineral notes linger on the long finish.

5 Stars | Michael Cooper, The Listener
Highly scented, this tightly structured, single-vineyard wine was grown at Dillons Point, the lower Wairau Valley. Full-bodied and dry, it is zesty, with intense melon, capsicum and passionfruit flavours that build a powerful finish.

2019 vintage

93/100 | Bob Campbell MW
Concentrated and quite creamy-textured sauvignon blanc with ripe passionfruit, pineapple, pink grapefruit and red capsicum flavours. An accessible wine with reasonably soft acidity. Very appealing.

92/100 | Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier – Oct 2019
A wine that takes a few moments to open up in the glass – when it does it reveals an interesting package of aromas and flavours. Aromas of seeds and white spice, white tropical fruits, golden kiwi-fruit and stony mineral, almost salty layers. A refreshing texture with a core of new fruits, backbone of acidity, lengthy finish with an enticing textured complexity. A solid, well made wine. Great drinking now and through 2021.

4 stars | Yvonne Lorkin
If you’re looking for a womp-bop-a-loo-bop, tutti-frutti, my boy lollipop sauvigon blanc, then you’re on the wrong karaoke mic my friend, because this bottle of Ben Glover-grown gorgeousness is on the saucy but subtle side. Think lemongrass, baby basil, pea pods and lemon zest, it’s acidity has just the perfect amount of ‘prickle’ and the finish is just the right amount of juicy. Nice one.

2018 vintage

• Silver, Marlborough Wine Show, 2018

93/100 | Bob Campbell MW – March 2019
Bone-dry sauvignon blanc with green capsicum, gooseberry, lime, guava and a subtle passionfruit flavours. A tangy wine with impressive purity an power. One of the better wines I’ve tasted from what appears to have been a challenging vintage.

5 stars | Michael Cooper
The classy 2018 vintage (5*) is a single-vineyard wine, grown at Dillons Point, in the lower Wairau Valley. Light lemon/green, it is aromatic, weighty and punchy, with deep lime and passionfruit flavours, good acid spine, and a tightly structured, dry, lasting finish. A label worth discovering.

2017 vintage

• Silver, Marlborough Wine Show, 2018

90/100 | James Suckling – 2017
A very smooth lime and lemon citrus focus. Impressive tautness. Delivers smooth nectarine and yellow grapefruit flavours into the finish. Drink now.

2016 vintage

• 4.5 stars, Bob Campbell, 2017
• Silver, Air New Zealand Wine Awards, 2017
• Silver, Marlborough Wine Show, 2018

Top 10 | Cuisine – 2016
Breezing its way into the top ten, the Zephyr starts with flinty asparagusy leanness and grows in generosity. Yellow fruit notes come to the party and the textural interest builds. This is a juicy, dry style and a perfect accompaniment for seared scallops.

18+/20 | Raymond Chan – Jan 2017
Bright, light straw-yellow colour with pale green suggestions, lighter on the rim.  The nose is softly full and voluminous with gently packed, bright aromas of fresh passionfruit entwined with tropical fruits, gooseberries, fresh herbs and ripe capsicums.  Dry to taste and medium-bodied, the palate has a tightly concentrated core gooseberries, tropical fruits, passionfruit, and fresh, aromatic herbs, along with nuances of minerals.  The mouthfeel is vibrant and lively with slippery acidity, and the wine flows with plenty of energy along a very fine-textured phenolic line, carrying to an elegant, restrained finish of gooseberries and passionfruit.  This is a finely concentrated, stylish Sauvignon Blanc with passionfruit, tropical fruit and gooseberry flavours, flowing along a slippery, refreshing palate.  Serve with seafood, salads and vegetables over the next 2 years.  Fruit from ‘Kerseley Estate’, Dillons Point from 24 y.o. vines, cool-fermented in tank to 13.0% alc. and 3 g/L RS, the wine aged 4-6 months on light lees.  3,315 dozen made.

92/100 | Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier – 2017
Pungent, vibrant  and packed with aromas of fresh citrus, white peach and red apple, plenty of cold wet stone mineral, tropical fruit layer and fresh basil. On the palate – very fresh, crisp, primary and packed with flavour – grapefruit and apple, pineapple and fresh herb, a hint of white spice and light lees moment adding depth and complexity. Finishes dry a classic example. Drink now and through 2026.

89/100 | Lisa Perotti-Brown, Wine Advocate – 2017
The 2016 Sauvignon Blanc has a very pretty nose of lime blossoms, fresh lemons and elderflower with cassis and thyme hints. Light to medium-bodied, crisp, zingy and minerally in the mouth, the finish is so delicuously invigorating you just can’t say “no” to another glass!

88/100 | Wine Spectator – 2017
Fresh herbal overtones of lemongrass and lemon verbena give the citrus core a fragrant air. Juicy on the finish.

Matthew Jukes, The Daily Mail – 2017
Zephyr is a work of art and it leads the way for a new era of NZ Sauvignon with chiselled features and mouth-watering citrus fruit. Epic balance and a stellar finish mark this as a wine to track down at all costs.

2015 vintage

• Gold, Royal Easter Show, 2017
• Silver, Air New Zealand Wine Awards, 2017
• 4 stars, Bob Campbell MW, 2017

2014 vintage

• Gold, Royal Easter Show, 2015

93/100 – Sam Kim, wineorbit.co.nz – Oct 2014
This is impressively fruited and fabulously good drinking. It’s filled tasty stone fruit, lemon zest and rockmelon with subtle herbal influence. The palate is full, generous and long with plenty of succulent flavours. At its best: now to 2018.

4 stars, Winestate, 2015
Weighty, with good intensity of fresh, ripe melon, lime and capsicum flavours, long and tangy. Single vineyard wine, grown in the lower Wairau Valley.

Robert Parker, 2015
…opens with vibrant lemon and green apple scents plus underlying capsicum, pea pod and fresh herb hints. Medium-bodied with a pleasant creaminess to the texture, it has plenty of zippy citrus and herbal flavours on offer well into the long, refreshing finish.

2013 vintage

5 stars | Michael Cooper, Winestate Magazine – July/August 2014
Distinctive, estate-grown wine from Dillons Point, in the lower Wairau Valley. Fleshy and crisp, with excellent weight and depth of vibrant melon, gooseberry and lime flavours, and slightly salty and leesy notes adding complexity. One of the best sauvignon blancs of the vintage.

4.5 stars | Raymond Chan – 2014
Bright, pale straw colour with slight green hues, near colourless on rim. The nose is soft with gentle pungent passionfruit aromas infused with chalky minerals, growing in depth and revealing herbal and gooseberry elements with aeration. Dry to taste and medium-bodied, gently luscious flavours of passionfruit and gooseberries form a positive core. The mouthfeel is smooth-flowing with a dry-textured, chalky line, and discreet, background acid liveliness and freshness. Sweet fruit nuances emerge and are carried to a long, lingering, elegant finish. This is a soft-textured dry Sauvignon Blanc with chalky, minerally fruit. Match with poultry, salads and vegetables, and with Mediterranean fare over the next 2 years.

2012 vintage

• Silver, Royal Easter Show, 2013
• Top White, Bob Campbell MW, Gourmet Traveller

5 stars | Michael Cooper, Winestate
Distinctive, estate-grown wine from Dillons Point, in the lower Wairau Valley.  Fleshy and crisp, with excellent weight and depth of vibrant melon, gooseberry and lime flavours, and slightly salty and leesy notes adding complexity.  One of the best sauvignon blancs of the vintage

4.5 stars | 18-/20 – Raymond Chan
Brilliant pale straw-green colour, pale on rim. This has a tight, concentrated nose of fresh gooseberries and building pungent passionfruit aromas, along with some flinty notes all interwoven and integrated. Dry to taste, the palate is fulsome, open and upfront with concentrated passionfruit flavours supported by gooseberries and dark herbs. The mouthfeel is soft and harmonious, with balanced, restrained acidity. The flavours are moderated by some alcohol drive through the mid-palate which leads to a gentle, sustained finish with mineral and herbal nuances. This is an open and harmonious Sauvignon Blanc with a concentrated heart of pungent pasionfruit flavours. Match with seafood and poultry over the next 2+ years. A single vineyard wine from Dillons Point, cool-fermented to 13.5% alc. and 5.8 g/L rs. 18.0-/20 May 2012.