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Buy OnlineThe Brajkovich family have carved out a reputation second to none for Chardonnay and every new release adds to that reputation.
The 2025 vintage is up there with one of the best ever for Kumeu River, however quantities are well down so our allocation is very limited. Now is your chance to access this world-class wine!
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate
"If you can taste history, duty, and family pride in a glass, it’s there in the Kumeu River Chardonnays… now producing some of New Zealand’s greatest Chardonnays, not to mention the world’s."
Winery notes (2025 Vintage)
"In 1990, Maté Brajkovich reworked the land and planted a new vineyard of Chardonnay vines on the site of the original vineyard that he and his family purchased in March 1944. The first grapes from this vineyard were harvested in March 1993, the year following Maté's death. The resulting wine was released in November 1994 to coincide with celebrations marking the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Brajkovich Family's arrival at Kumeu River.
2025 was a remarkably dry harvest season. We started with the early Sparkling Wine varieties in perfect condition on 4 February. One week later we had 17mm, just before we commenced the table wine harvest. After that, it was pretty much dry all the way through the rest of Vintage on 17 March. This year we are particularly excited about the Chardonnay wines from both regions, and especially the Single Vineyard wines which are keenly typical of their sites."
Rated Outstanding & 98/100 Cameron Douglas MS, August 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"Taut, closed, complex and very very new. Aromas and flavours of ripe white fleshed fruits with a sweet citrus pith note, fine lees and layers of gentle wood spices. A very focused and complex wine, one to visit several times over a day or two. Taut and delicious."
Reviews for the 2025 vintage below…
98/100 & #3 Top 100 New Zealand Wines of 2025, JamesSuckling.com (2024 Vintage)
"The complexity and subtlety are most impressive, with honeysuckle, white flower, ripe pear, flint and vanilla bean aromas. Medium-bodied with a tight and phenolic texture and a long, tight finish. Lots of layered mouthfeel and complexity. Fantastic finish."
96+/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, August 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Preserved lemon, green olive, hazelnut, a few matchsticks, ginger, tarragon, green pear and white peach. In short, complex. It’s savoury, mealy, saline, has a certain spicy and almost white pepper character, though there’s no shortage of intensity and fruit. Lots of flint and chalk. Very long. Kind of reticent and tightly-coiled as at now, though gee, it’s a wine of presence and regal carriage. Outstanding."
95-97/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, June 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"The 2024 Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay is mouthfilling and full, easily the biggest and most powerful of the single-vineyard Chardonnays in this 2024 release. "In terms of quality, 2024 is up there with the best of them: 2022, 2020, 2014…" This feels perhaps as statuesque and thrilling as the best of the Maté's so far, with intensity that explodes in every direction on the palate—length and width—with spicy top notes and a thunderous base of yellow fruit. The acidity, as usual, coils and weaves its way across the palate, lacing together the fruit and phenolics with seamless intensity. This is very good."
96/100 Jaime Goode, WineAnorak.com, December 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Mendoza clone. Complex, fresh and layered, showing pineapple, pear and a hint of apricot. Multidimensional with amazing precision. This has real texture, length and intensity, with potential for ageing."
David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, July 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"I have been known to describe Matés Vineyard Chardonnay as ‘beautiful chaos’ on release. Winemaker Michael describes it as “having more stuff in it”. A youthful concentration defines the bouquet – at the same time smoky and plush, spicy and clean – with lemon curd, white peach, pear, hazelnut, oatmeal, vanilla and incense. The tannin I mentioned earlier gives a zesty, mealy character and texture. The finish has splendid length and harmony – already quite seamless. Less brooding than some releases, I could, again, see myself trying this earlier than my usual 6-8 years down the track."
