Kevin Judd was the founding winemaker of Cloudy Bay and made its first 25 vintages. Greywacke is his own label. Wine Spectator put the 2022 at #10 in its Top 100 of 2023, and five critics score the new 2025 between 92 and 95. If you have written off New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, this is the bottle that changes your mind.

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

Every time we offer this wine it is one of our best sellers, and every time a few of you write back surprised. The surprise is always the same: you did not think you loved New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

If you have written the category off, I understand. This bias-breaking gem will shatter that thought. It is sensational, and the reason is the man who makes it.

The Man Who Made Cloudy Bay

Kevin Judd was the founding winemaker of Cloudy Bay, the wine that put Marlborough on the world map, and he made its first 25 vintages. There is not much he does not know about Sauvignon Blanc from this valley.

Greywacke is what he does now. He founded it in 2009 with his wife Kimberley and named it for the grey river stones that make up Marlborough’s soils, and his signature is on the label. It gets the critical attention of a much more expensive wine, and it is priced like a Tuesday bottle.

Number 10 In The World

In 2023, Wine Spectator ranked the 2022 Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc #10 in its Top 100 wines of the year, the first New Zealand white ever to reach the magazine’s Top 10, ahead of thousands of far more expensive bottles from every wine region on earth. That was not a fluke vintage. The new 2025 has 95 points from Halliday, 94 from Wine Advocate and Cam Douglas, 93 from James Suckling and 92 from Wine Spectator, and Wine Advocate’s note ends: “This is a superb wine in any vintage.”

Exploding With Kaleidoscopic Flavor

Read the critics side by side and you get a kaleidoscope. Halliday found white pineapple, pomelo, Thai basil and a nettle-herb prickle that is “utterly intoxicating.” Wine Spectator found peach and pineapple, lemon sage and lemon verbena, candied ginger, matcha and jasmine. Wine Advocate found green apple skin, brine and green olive tapenade on a palate that is “tightly coiled and yet textured.”

That is what Judd does that the big brands do not: a dry, textural, layered wine with the length of something three times the price. Halliday again: “It unravels what you know of sauvignon blanc, making it a star-studded wine in my books.”

The Price

$19.99. Wine Spectator's drinking window is through 2035, so there is no hurry once it is in your fridge, but there is every reason to buy it by the case. It is the wine we reach for at home, and we sell more of it every time we offer it.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Wine

2025 Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc.

Kevin Judd, Marlborough. Five critics from 92 to 95.

Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2025

Marlborough, New Zealand · Kevin Judd

The winery’s own note: Golden Queen peaches and poached yellow pears, baked apple, mango and rock melon, apple blossom and a twist of lemon sherbet, then a palate that is succulent and crisp with a fennel-like herbal edge and a dry, textural finish. “Quintessentially Marlborough, but a deliciously subtle, ripe interpretation of the classic style.” Every review is below, highest score first.

The Bottom Line

The man who made Cloudy Bay, for $19.99 a bottle.

Five critics between 92 and 95, a Wine Spectator Top 100 placing at #10, and a winemaker who has been making Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc since before most of the category existed. This is the bottle that shatters the bias.

Buy it by the case. It drinks through 2031, and it never lasts that long in our house.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

$19.99 A Bottle · Drinks Through 2035

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