Vavasour Wines
Vavasour Tasting Room: 26 Rapaura Road, Blenheim
Mailing: PO Box 48167 Renwick
Ph: 03-575 7481, fax: 03-575 7240
Email: tastingroom@vavasour.com
www.vavasour.com
Managing director/Marketing: Peter Scutts
Administration/Sales: Sue Jermyn
Winemaker: Glenn Thomas
Assistant winemaker: Stu Marfell
Viticulturist: Allan Croker
Wine sales: Cellar door, mail order, retail
Price range: $16-$27.50
Winery tastings: Summer 7 days
10am-5pm; winter Sun-Fri 10am-5pm
Winery tours: By appointment
As the original Montana Wines was to the Wairau Valley, so Vavasour Wines was to the Awatere. Peter Vavasour, scion of a long-established farming family in the rugged Awatere Valley, set in motion the planting of the valley’s first vineyard, a mere 12 hectares, in 1985. These days the valley is home to hundreds of hectares of vines, some of them planted by major industry players such as Montana (now Allied Domecq) and Villa Maria. The sub-region is cooler, drier and generally less fertile than the Wairau, producing wines of a subtly different character.
Vavasour Wines reserves its premium Vavasour label, featuring the distinctive rooster from the family crest, for wines made with mainly Awatere Valley grapes. The good-value Dashwood range, named after the nearby Dashwood Pass, includes fruit from the Wairau and the Awatere.
The company has 65 hectares of vineyards as well as buying from contract growers, and produced 60,000 cases from the 2004 vintage. The range covers the usual Marlborough varietals, but the flagship wine is the Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc, which is described by winemaker Glenn Thomas as having a flinty, mineral character that distinguishes it from Wairau Valley examples.
Vavasour also makes limited quantities of a single-vineyard Sauvignon Blanc that is fermented in old barrels. The 2004 version, from the original home vineyard, will be released early in 2005.
Pinot Noir is Vavasour’s premium red, having replaced the Cabernet Sauvignon vines that struggled to ripen in most years and were eventually pulled out. “Even when we made a good one, no one took it seriously,” laments Glenn. 
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