Dog Point, New Zealand
Dog Point Vineyard is my favourite Marlborough producer and has been for quite some time. It’s a hugely well-respected winery in the Southern Valleys of Marlborough, New Zealand. The vineyards were planted in the late 1970s, it is one of the oldest privately owned vineyards in the region. The vineyard is family-owned and operated, with a strong commitment to organic farming practices, making it New Zealand's largest certified organic vineyard by Biogro NZ.
“This is a seriously admirable wine estate that manages to produce great Pinot Noir as well as Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough – and, also unusually for an NZ producer, takes Chardonnay seriously.”
Jancis Robinson
Dog Point produces a range of wines among the best in the region, including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Their wines are crafted using low-intervention techniques, including the use of wild yeasts and hand-harvesting. They plant cover crops such as buckwheat and phacelia between the vines to encourage beneficial insects for the biological control of insect pests rather than using sprays as many would. Thousands of sheep are brought into the vineyards over winter to control grass and weed growth and to reintroduce 'organic matter’ into the vineyards. It really is a fascinating approach and the attention to detail in the vineyards and winery are certainly expressed in the finished wines.
“James Healy and Ivan Sutherland continue to produce some wonderful Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, their flagship Section 94 seeming to appear on just about every wine-list of any self-respecting restaurant”
Neal Martin
The vineyard's unique location at the confluence of the Brancott and Omaka valleys provides ideal conditions for grape growing, with a significant diurnal temperature range that allows for the slow ripening of grapes. This, married with low yielding, older vines provide greater complexity and better balance than you may otherwise expect from these varieties in Marlborough. In my view, the ‘standard’ Sauvignon is the leader in the market for a typical, but higher quality style of the grape. It has long been my favourite example of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and the only one I always keep at home. This isn’t your archetypal Marlborough fruit grenade. It’s composed, textured, refined and dare I say, a grown-up Sauvignon Blanc.
For those of more adventurous persuasion, Dog Point ‘Section 94’ Sauvignon Blanc remains, in my view, one of the most distinctive white wines on the planet. A single-vineyard wine, fermented with wild yeasts and aged for an extended period in seasoned French oak, it delivers a flinty, spicy, faintly smoky character, underpinned by ripe citrus and tropical fruit. It’s a wine of real tension and longevity, I drank a 2007 not long ago, and it was still singing, but it’s smashing now. It is particularly yummy with Asian inspire seafood dishes.
The Chardonnay may well be the jewel in their crown, consistently one of the finest examples produced in the Southern Hemisphere. Indeed just yesterday James Suckling did a video feature on it while dining in New Zealand. The Pinot Noir, meanwhile, often flies under the radar, grown on clay slopes rather than alluvial plains, giving it more structure, spice, and savoury depth than the usual bright-fruit Marlborough style.
Dog Point’s wines have always impressed me for their restraint, authenticity, and ability to age. They’re proof that New Zealand can produce wines of real breeding and complexity, not just exuberance. They come highly recommended by me as well as the critics.
The founders, Ivan and Margaret Sutherland, along with James and Wendy Healy, have played a pivotal role in the evolution of the Marlborough wine industry. They met while working at Cloudy Bay, playing a key part in Cloudy Bay’s success, then launched Dog Point in 2002 to return to a more hands-on approach. Their dedication to sustainable viticulture and uncompromising quality has made Dog Point a respected name in the world of wine.
