Until 1973 the Wairau plain was sheep paddocks; that year Montana planted Marlborough's first commercial vines, betting on cheap land at the top of the South Island. Cloudy Bay's debut in 1985 made the style famous — Sauvignon Blanc of piercing gooseberry and cut grass, unlike anything Europe produced — and the world's wine map gained a new fixed point almost overnight.
Growth has been vertiginous: Marlborough now holds roughly two-thirds of New Zealand's entire vineyard, spread over the stony old riverbeds of the Wairau and the cooler, later-ripening Awatere valley. The region also started the screwcap revolution — the New Zealand initiative of 2001 that ended cork's monopoly on quality wine — and its Pinot Noir and aromatic whites now broaden a name that Sauvignon built.