The Awatere Valley is the southern sister valley of the Wairau Valley, where Marlborough's Sauvignon Blanc legacy began. As interest has grown in the Awatere, vineyard plantings have risen to around 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres), with very little prime viticultural land now left in the valley.

The Awatere Valley shares many general climatic characteristics with the Wairau Valley, such as the low rainfall, high sunshine, warm summers, cool nights and long dry autumns ideal for producing high quality wines. However, bud burst for vines on lighter soils in the Awatere can be a little earlier than in the Wairau, while the region's harvest can be later, often giving Awatere grapes a longer ripening period in which to develop intense flavours.

With a relatively high water table in the Wairau Valley, the natural vigour of a vine like Sauvignon Blanc must be constantly checked in the vineyard in order for the vine to concentrate its energy on its grapes. However, the lack of underground water in the Awatere's free draining glacial outwash gravel soils, limits both the vigour and yield of its vines. This enables the vines to achieve a good balance and allows the viticulturalist greater control of vigour.

The result is ripe concentrated fruit which makes wines that embody the distinctive minerally style of the Awatere.