Jancis Robinson 18.5/20 (2018)

We are a Master of Science and a Master of Wine crafting delicious small batch fine wines from three New Zealand wine regions - Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Central Otago - from our home in Marlborough. Since we launched in 2013, our wines have been about celebrating the focus and detail of single vineyard expressions. Today we celebrate nine exceptional, sustainable single vineyards through our wines. We've sought these vineyards out not only because of their suitability for the variety they're nurturing with the right soil, microclimate and innate high quality, but also because they're grown by people who have a fervent desire for their vineyard to grow great wine, not just grapes. Together we have forty two years of collective global wine experience, and have sixty harvests (and counting) in Northern and Southern hemispheres under our belt. This experience forms the inspirational backbone for Blank Canvas. We put all our effort into making wines that are distinctive and cerebral, approaching each wine unencumbered by a regime or badge and are not beholden to tradition. Every vineyard, variety and vintage is approached as if it is a blank canvas. As a result, every wine tells a story, speaking of the exact place and time it is from. - Matt Thomson MSc Sophie Parker-Thomson MWMid smudgy cherry red and already showing some development in the colour with a soft pink rim. Aroma of succulent but tart red cherry and a hint of orange and just very slightly smoky to add further complexity. Lifts beautifully from the glass: scented, inviting. Classic freshness of this cool, late-ripening subregion but it is fully ripe. Intense purity of fruit here, the whole-bunch component in the background and just adding further freshness and a lovely, subtle herbal aspect. Tannins are super-fine, almost chalky, then silky on the day after opening. Great length, and tastes much younger than the colour might have suggested. Vibrant, refined, daringly light and dry and yet with great substance, persistence and tenderness. Confirms my love of the best Gibbston wines.