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SATO La Ferme de Sato Le Schisteaux Chenin Blanc 2019

Updated: Sep 19, 2022


I was lucky to be one of the first few people who received an alert about this limited edition SATO La Ferme de Sato range. I decided to open a bottle one Friday night, accompanying Pizza Hut’s ‘Limo’ one-metre long pizza with three different flavours.

SATO produces organic and low-intervention wine which is almost a natural wine, with minimal chemicals added.

Sato's La Ferme range is especially rare as the wine originated in Sato's newest vineyard, which the winemakers, Yoshiaki and Kyoto Sato, purchased in 2015: their first vintage was released in 2019. The vineyard is located along Mt Pisa Ridge, north of Cromwell—the historic gold mining town. The vineyard size here is small: five hectares, with just 3.2 hectares under vine. Here the soil contains alluvial sand, silt loam, schist and quartz gravel.


The first release of their La Ferme de Sato Chenin Blanc includes the word 'Schisteaux'—which means schist in French. Schist in soil usually adds refreshing acidity to the wine.

The vineyard uses no pesticides, herbicides, systemic fungicides or inorganic fertilisers. Grapes were hand-picked between 26–30 April 2019. The yield was only 28-hectare litres per hectare.

At the winery, grapes were pressed overnight with a basket press, one of the most gentle ways of extracting juice. Natural yeast fermentation in oak barrels was encouraged, with no additives added except for 20mg/L sulphites before bottling. Then the wine was matured in old French oak barrels for 16 months, and bottled on 3 September 2020 without fining or filtration. Just 1560 bottles (130 cases of a dozen bottles) were produced.


I was really curious about Sato's first release of the new La Ferme de Sato range, and Chenin Blanc is a rather rare grape variety in New Zealand, even in Central Otago. The wine had a bright lemon colour and tasted of subtle stone fruits such as apricot and white peach, as well as lemon juice, lemon peel and a hint of toast. It is rich in mouthfeel with a medium to full body, with a soft and rounded texture. Its acidity made it a refreshing wine to eat with pizza on a Friday night at home.



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