My recent quest has been to begin sampling NZ Sauvignon Blancs in an effort to pick the 1 or more that will make up a majority of my white wine purchases for the summer. Last night we tried a new one for us from Huia.

Color was very pale almost clear, with citrus and kiwi on the nose. The wine had nice acids which were not overbearing with nice flavors of grapefruit, kiwi, tangerine with a nice finish. I believe I paid $13 for the bottle. My wife actually opened this before I got home and declared "This may be one of my favorite whites ever!". I liked it a lot as well and what struck me was that it was very balanced with the acidity being perfect. This wine to me had it all great fruit flavors, acidity to stand up to food yet not detract when drinking by itself, good price, and 13% alcohol no to high for summer drinking (gulping?). I would rate this one 92pts.

Looks like Huia must be doing better. I had a 98 or 99 that was not very good. True, I had it in 2001, so maybe it was over the hill. It was funked up with malty notes, of all things

I believe Huia is a project by the same guys who do Cloudy Bay. Jeremy, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you're right jaimetown. I am guessing my bottle must have been over the hill then

Here is a link to their site Huia Website

It doesn't mention a link to Cloudy Bay although it does mention that they worked at other NZ facilities before starting out on their own.

TJ - I liked this quite a bit, although I tend to like most if not all NZ SB's what struck me on this one was the overall balance, occasionally they seem so acidic that they almost seem harsh. It showed more of a fruit driven flavor rather than vegetal or herbal flavors. I would recommend trying it.

Thanks for the tasting notes. By coincidence, I had this wine tonight too.

I agree with your descriptions, however I found the acidity a bit much for drinking without food. The tart, lemony finish made me pucker more than I'd like when just sipping a wine. I gave it an 83 which is still a good wine in my book.

babnik - Out of curiosity do you drink a lot of NZ SB's? I found the acidity on this less than many if not most others. I should have mentioned I was probably drinking this at a slightly warmer temp than maybe others would as well probably around 55-60 degrees. The food I had this with was tempura fried shrip with a honey, pineapple walnut sauce.

Sorry, I've been away.

Claire and Mike Allen started Huia back in the early 90's. Presently their vineyards produce about %50 of their own grapes, with the rest coming from Contract growers (where else?).

They have utilised other wineries for producing their wines (its quite common here in NZ) but have a tasting room and facility.

Jeremy,
Welcome back!
It's been almost a week...

Travels.......not much fun though all work stuff and not the wine stuff sadly.

I enjoyed a bottle of the '02 Huia last night. Huge grapefruit, lemon and tangerine flavors. I found this wine to be a little more acidic than Lawson's or Giesen (or even Cloudy Bay for that matter). Very pure, fruit driven.
I think if you are having 1-2 glasses, this wine does fine on its own, however, if you are planning to drink the whole bottle, it probably is best served with food, to help offset some of the acidity.

Great stuff. I'd put it about a point lower than the Lawson's. 89-90 points.