Cloudy Bay, Marlborough (New Zealand) Sauvignon Blanc 2016

 This is surely among the handful of most important wines in the history of New Zealand’s wine industry.  As recently as a decade ago, it was pretty tightly allocated and difficult to find on store shelves, but the boom in Marlborough Sauvignon (and the rise of other high-end expressions of the genre) has now deprived this of its rarity.  By extension, it has also lost its sheen as a luxury product, and is actually being discounted to a previously unheard of price of $20 in my city of Washington, D.C. on the day I’m writing this review.  But with all that said, the wine is still outstanding, and has now become an actual bargain if purchased from the right place.  Who ever thought we could say that about Cloudy Bay?  The 2016 rendition is very complex but also very well integrated, with complexity in the fruit profile that includes layers of citrus, melon and even tropical notes.  There’s plenty of energetic acidity, of course, but it is beautifully interwoven with the ripe fruit.  If you’ve never tried this wine, or haven’t been back to it for a while, don’t miss this vintage.