2024 Kumeu River - Kumeu Village Chardonnay (750ml)
Kumeu River has been family owned and run by the Brajkovich family since 1944, and it was among the first wineries to put Auckland, New Zealand on the world wine map. Today head winemaker Michael Brajkovich, one of the first Masters of Wine born outside Europe, continues a hands-off, Burgundian approach that has made the estate's Chardonnays some of the most sought after outside France.
The Village bottling draws on 14 hectares planted between 1989 and 2016 across two sites, clay soils around Kumeu and limestone at the family's Rays Road vineyard in Hawke's Bay. Grapes are hand harvested and fermented entirely with native yeasts, with a portion aged in older French oak barrels and the remainder kept in stainless steel to preserve freshness. This restrained approach to oak lets the fruit and the vineyards' mineral character lead, rather than any added richness from new wood.
The wine offers lively lime and lemon aromas backed by a flinty, saline edge, with hints of fig and white peach filling out the mid-palate. Texturally it is fine and tightly coiled, staying dry and precise through a long, mineral finish. Serve it with raw oysters, sashimi, or a simple citrus-dressed salad.