Kevin and Kimberley Judd have been making their Greywacke Marlborough wines for 10 vintages now, but Kevin’s fame of 25 years from being the founding winemaker at Cloudy Bay has never left him. Cloudy Bay, of course has moved onwards and upwards, venturing into Central Otago, but Kevin and Kimberley have elected to develop their style of Marlborough wines to such an extent that they are among the most interesting and complex, and deliciously friendly, and thus are among the most highly regarded in the region. Kevin and Kimberley, assisted by Richard Ellis who came on board in 2014, employ the classical Marlborough varieties of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and have made wines that have layers of complexities and textures, with richness and style that take them above the norm. They do the same with Pinot Gris and Riesling, and the limited amount of specialised wines (usually sweet) too, such that any Greywacke bottling is one worth investigating, drinking and enjoying.
The immediate comparison many consumers make is how they compare with the Dog Point wines of Ivan Sutherland and James Healy. These three men spent many years together at Cloudy Bay, and still continue an intimate association, as the Greywacke wines are made at the Dog Point facility. The easiest way to answer this is that firstly, the fruit sources differ, and that the winemaker styles are distinctly different. For me, the Dog Point wines can have an incredible intensity and firmness that requires bottle age to show their best. They are superb wines of outstanding quality. Kevin, from what I can see, opts for a softer, richer, more accessible approach, but with similar levels of complexity. They probably have an earlier drinking window. It’s an exercise in comparing excellence. Here, I review the new release 2016 ‘Wild’ Sauvignon, Pinot Gris and Riesling, 2015 Pinot Noir and 2011 Botrytis Pinot Gris. www.greywacke.com
