2024 Te Mata Cape Crest Sauvignon Blanc, Hawkes Bay

An explosively intense sauvignon (blend) which leads with sweet, vanilla oak on the nose in its currently youthful state. The palate is weighty and compact yet finely etched with reverberating acidity and long, linear drive right across the tongue. Despite its heft and size, it is elegant and even restrained, reluctantly revealing flavours of blackcurrant, blackberry leaf, apple blossom and young pineapple. The underlying tension, and grainy, gravelly minerality eventually yields to the oak flavours on the dry finish but this is barely approachable at this stage. Give it another year in bottle to meld and enjoy it over the coming decade for its impressive concentration, depth and inherent complexity. Seriously good barrel-fermented sauvignon. (Includes "a touch of semillon and sauvignon gris"). Drink to 2036.

96 points Stephen Wong for The Real Review, March 2026

Te Mata's version of white Bordeaux, a blend of 85/9/5% sauvignon blanc/semillon/sauvignon gris, pressed to barrel for 11 months on French oak, 35% new. Pale with a green flash and fruit tones of grapefruit, lime and guava, a curl of struck flint and hints of clover blossom, crème fraîche, cut fennel bulb, white flowers, currants, daubs of cream and a touch of vanilla. A lovely tension, too, with a fine saline acidity and a long, stony, crisp finish. Gorgeous drinking. Drink to 2036.

95+ points (Special value) Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

The 2024 Cape Crest Sauvignon Blanc is composed of 86% Sauvignon Blanc, 9% Sémillon and 5% Pinot Gris. It is a powerful wine that is layered with texture, spice and toast yet shaped by precision rather than weight alone. The season was windy and intermittently cool, resulting in yields that were down approximately 35% across all varieties. The bunches and berries were notably small, concentrating the flavor and acidity. On the nose, the wine offers white chocolate, quinine, lime zest, white flowers, jasmine, fennel and aniseed. The palate is expansive yet controlled, with a saline, mouthwatering line of acidity that carries long through the finish. The press cut was taken earlier in the cycle to preserve/protect the natural acidity and freshness. The wine was fermented from approximately 550 to 600 liters of free-run juice, with no malolactic fermentation employed. It matured for 11 months in French oak, 30% of which was new. This marks the second year of the estate’s new-barrel program, with 35% second-use oak and the balance third- and fourth-fill barrels. The result is a wine of authority and detail: it is concentrated, architectural and deeply satisfying. This is excellent. Drink to 2039.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, June 2026

Bright, light yellow in the glass, with very attractive and intense aromas of spicy barrel-fermented sauvignon, gooseberry, almond and various nutty accents, while the palate is intense and lively, medium full in weight and attractively elegant, the barrel derived nuances lifting and adding great detail to the varietal sauvignon fruit. Fresh acidity cleanses the follow-through. Drink to 2034.

94 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, March 2026

Aromas of jasmine, Meyer lemons, green melon and lavender. So fresh and rather delicate. Medium-bodied with crunchy fruit and tangy acidity. Crisp and vivid. 86% sauvignon blanc, 9% semillion and 5% sauvignon gris. Drink or hold.

94 points James Suckling, January 2026

Te Mata takes it name from the hill of Te Mata O Rongokako, the silhouette of Rongokako, the Sleeping Giant. In the pūrākau of the Ngāti Kahungunu, the local chief proved his love for beautiful Hinerakau by attempting to eat a pathway through the hills to the sea. He died beside his final bite, and the profile of his body is the high peaks of Te Mata O Rongokako.

Te Mata is among the first wineries to greet the rising sun. The vineyards were once part of the Te Mata Station, a large pastoral landholding established by English immigrant John Chambers in 1854.

Johns third son Bernard planted three parcels of north-facing hillside land above the homestead with Chardonnay, Cabernet and Pinot Noir in 1892, and began converting the original stables to ferment and mature these first Te Mata wines, and the estate wines have been made at that location ever since.

The Chambers family sold the property in 1919, and the property had two other owners until it was acquired by the Buck and Morris families in 1974, the two families behind the modern interpretation of this historic estate.

The estate is committed to improving its performance in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability through the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) programme.