2024 Mount Fishtail Sauvignon Blanc Sur Lie Marlborough New Zealand 750 ml

Normally, an under-$20 wine comes with a long list of “don’t expects.”

Don’t expect it to be estate-grown. Don’t expect meticulous, hands-on winemaking. And certainly don’t expect any impressive critical endorsements. 

Well, the 2024 Mount Fishtail Sur Lie Sauv Blanc defies the expectations, delivering everything you don’t expect for the price. 

Grown on estate vineyards in the prime Marlborough regions of Waihopai and Wairau, this was raised six months on the lees, giving it a beautifully creamy texture to balance out Marlborough Sauv Blanc’s always-vibrant acid. It’s bursting with tropical aromas, mouthwatering and zippy on the palate, the real deal—just ask the judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards, who gave it a rock-solid 94-point score.

Mount Fishtail winery, named after the distinctive peak that looms over the Sauvignon Blanc hotbed of Marlborough, has excellent vineyard holdings in Waihopai and Wairau. Given that a large portion of Sauvignon Blanc made in the region comes from contract-grown fruit, Mount Fishtail is an outlier. They make this bottling only from estate-grown fruit, giving them tight control over farming decisions and yields—decisions that translate directly into the quality of the final product. 

The winemaking is extremely deliberate. To add mouthfilling richness to always-zippy Sauvignon Blanc, the Mount Fishtail team ages the wine on the lees for six months. This contact with the spent yeast cells gives gorgeous midpalate weight to the wine. It’s no wonder the DWWA judges praised its “mouth-watering acidity and satin texture on the palate.”

You can bet we’ll be sipping this from when the sun is high until the stars are shining bright. It’s a perfect accompaniment for all kinds of dishes, from grilled shell-on U-16 shrimp to salads packed with crunchy vegetables.