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New Zealand wine is largely produced in ten major wine growing regions spanning latitudes 36° to 45° South and extending 1,600 km (1,000 miles). They are, from north to south Northland, Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, and Central Otago.
New Zealand is home to what many wine critics consider the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc. Oz Clarke, a well known British wine critic wrote in the 1990s that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was "arguably the best in the world". Historically, Sauvignon Blanc has been used in many French regions in both AOC and Vin de Pays wine. The most famous had been France’s Sancerre.
Following Robert Mondavi's lead in renaming Californian Sauvignon Blanc Fumé Blanc there was a trend for oaked Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand during the late 1980s. Later the fashion for strong oaky overtones and also the name waned.
In the 1980s, wineries in New Zealand, especially in the Marlborough region, began producing outstanding, some critics said unforgettable, Sauvignon Blanc. "New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is like a child who inherits the best of both parents -- exotic aromas found in certain Sauvignon Blancs from the New World and the pungency and limy acidity of an Old World Sauvignon Blanc like Sancerre from the Loire Valley". Another critic claims that "no other region in the world can match Marlborough, the northeastern corner of New Zealand's South Island, which seems to be the best place in the world to grow Sauvignon Blanc grapes".
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