Sun, Seafood, and Sauvignon Blanc

I have been in sunny Sarasota, Florida on the West Coast since last Thursday, a major reason I haven't posted in several days. Since my lovely wife and daughter had been down here for a week and half without me already, I had other priorities than writing.
For a relatively small city, Sarasota has a fantastic arts, culture, and food scene. We had the pleasure of eating at the Lido Beach Grill, which has great food and stunning views to both west and east across Sarasota Bay to the mainland. We enjoyed both the sunset over the Gulf and then the lights coming on along the shore. On the eighth floor it's one of the highest spots on Lido Key so the views are unobstructed in the whole dining room. Oh, and the food was excellent. The bread is delicious and served with mango jalapeno butter. Trust me, it works. We shared the crab roll, a take on maki but fried on the outside. (Apparently that's a common touch with sushi preparations down here. Purists would probably cringe, but it's hard to argue with anything so tasty.) The lovely Allison had the broiled lobster tail (local Floridian lobster), almost perfectly cooked and served with more of that butter and mashed sweet potatoes. I had the grilled mangrove snapper (fish here, as expected, is fresh and also local) with lobster crab cake, Florida citrus jus with passionfruit, and mango avocado salsa. You have to love a restaurant that takes maximal advantage of the local bounty of seafood and fruit. I was told the best Florida strawberries and beef (Florida still has cattle ranches though many have been converted to golf courses and condos, including the enormous Lakewood Ranch development here) get shipped north to big cities, but it seems a top restaurant is able to keep some top-quality local produce.
The wine pairing was New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, my never fail go-to for seafood. Marlboro is by far the largest and best-known wine region in NZ, and Sauvignon Blanc is king there. The long growing season makes for distinct flavors you might not find in Sav Blanc from California or Bordeaux, and I enjoyed three different Marlboros this past week. Our party shared a bottle of Wairau River Estate SB (I think the 2008) one night, and it was fresh and pleasing with citrus notes, green and grassy on the palate and nose, and just a tinge of sweetness from the aromatics, although it was fermented dry. At $15 a bottle on the Web (look around), it's the sort of white I would buy by the case to drink all the time. At least I would if I didn't have two wine fridges already full with several bottles overflow already.