2024 Pegasus Bay Finale Noble Semillon Sauvignon Half Bottle 375ml, North Canterbury

A complex wine that weaves rich, fleshy mango and papaya tropical fruit with a layer of vanilla bean oak. Flavours of coffee bean and white chocolate add another layer and the finish is precise and clean. Drink to 2036.

90 points Jane Skilton for The Real Review, January 2026

Finale draws inspiration from the famous sweet wines of Sauternes and in 2024 is a 52/48 blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, with only fully shrivelled bunches of fruit selected to make this wine. The concentrated juice fermented in mostly new French oak barriques and rested on lees for a total of twelve months prior to blending and bottling with 186g/L residual (natural) sugar.

Serve lightly chilled on its own or paired with desserts made with orchard fruit. Good company to blue cheese, too.

About this producer

Planted from 1985 onwards, the Pegasus Bay vineyard sits in Waipara Valley, a 45-minute drive north of Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island. It enjoys protection from the Pacific’s easterly breezes, a prolonged ripening period with substantial diurnal temperature variations. The alluvial Glasnevin gravel soils here are free draining and low in fertility, resulting in naturally reduced vine vigour.

The Donaldson family, viticultural pioneers in the region, remain the owner-operators of Pegasus Bay. Minimal intervention at all stages from vine to bottle typifies the winemaking approach: sustainable viticultural management, low crop levels, minimal handling of fruit, natural malolactic fermentation and clarification by settling, without the use of fining agents. All wines are made from estate grown fruit.