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Buy OnlineWinery notes (2024 Vintage)
"Hand picked, barrel fermented, aged on lees for 10 months. Sweet Pea, Nettle, Jasmine.
Marathon Downs has been in our family for over 120 years. We started as share croppers, before receiving the farm in the ballot. We farm sheep, beef and arable crops. Producing wine, is a stamp of the fourth generation.
We make small batch, minimal intervention wines from the Awatere Valley, Marlborough. Our grapes are all family farmed. Our goal is make honest wines that express the rawness of the Awatere Valley and bring people together."
93/100 Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review, January 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"Jess Barnes and Nick Pett have crafted a fabulous sauvignon in 2024. Marathon Downs is the name of the Awatere Valley mixed-use farm which Jess’s family have tended for four generations. The couple have also planted a small block of their own (watch this space!) but the Racecourse Block is where the sauvignon comes from.
The hand-picked fruit is wild-fermented in old, neutral oak barrels and aged for 10 months on lees but the result is not at all oaky or overdone. In fact, Nick and Jess have managed to capture the fragrance and intensity of the stunning 2024 vintage in a remarkably pure and varietal way, supported by lovely texture. A complex sauvignon with excellent palate weight, concentrated green kiwifruit flavours and a dense, almost waxy texture which adds savoury interest to the long, powerful, dry finish. Gravelly depth and minerality. A twist of zingy acidity runs throughout, keeping everything in focus."
Reviews for the 2023 vintage below…
93/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, May 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"A Sauvignon Blanc from the Awatere Valley in Marlborough. A pale lemon-green colour in the glass. Perfumed with citrus, whitecurrant, apple and cucumber, with a lifted and distinctive meadow grass note of golden florals. Quite pithy and dry into the palate, with a saline acidity giving good drive. The fruit turns to a more tropical aspect, showing guava and white fleshed nectarine. There is a nibble of phenolic – and sorrel, nettle and citrus peel come to mind. Towards the finish, a generous texture starts to envelop the palate, with a richer measure of baking spice and creaminess hinting at some oak-barrel components in the production. A well-balanced expression from this new label."
