21 October 2025
By Sarah Neish in Drinks Business
Image by Drinks Biz
You heard it here first. Aged New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc will be festooning Christmas tables this year, with one UK retailer backing it as the white of the season. Sarah Neish gets under the skin of the trend.
This week, two new wines from Marlborough producer te Pā hit Co-op stores, one of which is its Signature Series Reserve Barrel-Fermented Sauvignon Blanc. Ordinarily, this might not be breaking news. However, the ferocity with which the retailer went after this particular listing hints at an emerging trend with regards to the bottles that could be gracing our Christmas wine fridges.
Aged whites have long been a fixture on the festive table. But while white Burgundies are largely made from Chardonnay, and white Riojas from Viura or Garnacha Blanca, aged Sauvignon Blancs have flown under the radar, at least on a commercial scale. Therefore it’s a sizeable gamble, or as te Pā’s head winemaker Sam Bennett calls it, “a ballsy move”, for the Co-op to go big on this wine style. And big it has gone.. [READ MORE…]