the time being crafted from itchy fabrics of dubious flammability, a lot of excellent stuff actually happened in 1974. Yours truly was born (shout out to Waipukurau Maternity), we all watched M*A*S*H*, the great game of Connect Four was released, everybody was "Kung Fu Fighting" and we ate at Cobb & Co. And just quietly, Bill Spence from Matua Valley released New Zealand’s first sauvignon blanc. In 1976, when Montana planted it in major scale in Marlborough (of all places!), the industry scratched its head. What even was this grape? But by the late 1980s the world was well and truly taking notice. English wine critic Oz Clark describes his first New Zealand sauvignon blanc experience as follows: “My world of wine would never be the same again.
