Dog Point's Ivan Sutherland and James Healy, the former chief viticulturalist (Sutherland) and oenologist (Healy) at Marlborough's renowned Cloudy Bay, are two of New Zealand's most influential winegrowers. Together with legendary winemaker Kevin Judd they established Cloudy Bay as a New World icon, which during the 1990's became one of the world's most fashionable wines. When Cloudy Bay was eventually bought by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, Sutherland and Healy departed to create Dog Point.

Produced from the magnificent vineyards planted in the 70's and 80's that formerly supplied Cloudy Bay, Dog Point wines are amongst the most refined in New Zealand, compellingly combining New World vitality and Old World minerality. Winegrowing is impeccable; the grapes are hand-picked, and winemaking is non-interventionist.

The three wines being offered today represent the very best of Marlborough. They are truly astonishing value for money: it is hard to imagine a sauvignon/chard/pinot trio of wines from any producer anywhere that offers more for less.

Stylistically the wines are an intriguing case study, because they are not typical. They are all very understated wines, focused and supremely well balanced, offering levels of subtlety and complexity far above and beyond the ploddingly obvious 'varietal characters' that too many New World wines are restricted to.  

Expectations are very high: the Dog Point team incessantly benchmark themselves against the very best - for example the standard yardstick for their chardonnays is Grand Cru Chablis, against which they are relentlessly tasted. No surprise then that Dog Point Chardonnay is extraordinarily minerally, and capable of very serious age.  Likewise the Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc is unique for Marlborough in that it is much more about structure than copybook herbal/tropical aromas and flavours; the Pinot Noir is all about purity, juicy minerality, and finesse.

These are distinctive, top value, cutting edge wines that perfectly express the values of 'People, Place, and Time'.