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Buy OnlineGold Medal – New Zealand International Wine Show 2024
Cameron Douglas MS Top 12 Hawkes Bay Chardonnay Collection 2022
The Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay has carved out an enviable reputation as one of Hawkes Bay and New Zealand's very best.
Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Church Road Grand Reserve wines are produced only in exceptional vintages. The very best low-cropping vineyard blocks are targeted for selective hand-harvesting to yield wines with the greatest possible flavour, depth and concentration. In the winery these wines are made using small batch, traditional winemaking techniques that emphasise texture, structure and subtle complexity, while still letting the fruit shine through.
A fuller bodied Chardonnay balanced by gentle, fresh acidity and a spine of slate like minerality. Fresh zesty citrus and citrus blossom notes are to the fore this year with riper, richer stonefruit underlying and providing extra depth. The fruit is overlaid with complexities of roasted nuts, toasted brioche, and a wisp of struck flint and gun smoke. Already drinking exceptionally well, with careful cellaring we expect this wine to continue to mature gracefully for 5 years or more from vintage date."
94/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, July 2024 (2021 Vintage)
"Scented with lemon peel, hazelnut, peach, baking spice, popcorn and pear – and where the struck match reductivity is tempered by the rich fruit and lift of honeysuckle florals. Full-bodied, with a slice of toasty, spicy oak contrasted to crisp acidity giving good length to the palate. Packed with energy and verve, there’s plenty of concentration – and plenty to like – with a complex, bold layering of elements and flavours."
94/100 Jamie Goode, WineAnorak.com, August 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"This is rich and lively with lovely vibrant pear, peach and pineapple fruit, showing good acidity and a touch of freshness from some dissolved carbon dioxide, that supports the lemony acid line. Very well integrated oak with some mineral notes adding framing to the ripe but balanced fruit. Such a broad palate of flavours, this is eager to please but has seriousness at the same time."
Gold Medal & #3 – Dish Magazine Chardonnay Tasting, September 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"With its pronounced floral aromas, masses of citrus blossom, acacia, white peach and sweet fruit concentration, this chardonnay immediately impressed the judges. Polished, precise, with a firm acid backbone, complex, hazelnutty, biscuity oak and a harmoniously smoky finish, it’s an absolutely stunning wine."
Reviews for the 2021 vintage below…
97/100 IWC Judges' Comments (2021 Vintage)
"Baked apple vanilla, quince, dried herbs, and spicy oak taunt palate with layered apple. Good length and lovely finish."
95/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, June 2024 (2021 Vintage)
"A wine that has been awarded ‘Best International Chardonnay’ at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in May 2024. The wine also won the ‘New Zealand White Trophy’ and the ‘New Zealand Chardonnay Trophy’. A vibrant green-gold colour in the glass. The perfume is extraordinary – you can smell it being opened from across the table. Golden peach, popcorn, baked apple, cashew nut, grapefruit, lemon marmalade, marzipan and butterscotch sit alongside a bloom of flinty struck-match reductivity. A perky acidity leads the palate, slightly saline, and with a crispness and directness that gives line and drive. Richly concentrated, there is a shift to tropical fruit flavours – very ripe and unctuous. Oak is noted – gravelly and toasted, but doesn’t burden the agility in the palate. Youthful, with energy and verve, this bold wine is no shrinking violet. A softer finish, with a creamy texture emerging and a finish that shows a dry phenolic and is very long."
