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Buy OnlineWinery notes (2025 Vintage)
"A beautifully floral Chardonnay, showcasing lifted aromatics and youthful exuberance on release. Aromas of ripe peach and lemon curd are layered over 13.4 % 3.35 the flinty mineral notes’ characteristic of Martinborough. Cool nights during the growing season have preserved freshness, lending the wine drive, focus, and precision, while a generous palate brings depth, texture, and mouthfeel. Built on elegance and restraint, it reflects the distinct terroir of the region. With time in bottle, the wine will evolve over the next decade, developing toasty brioche complexity to complement its core of stone fruit. Serve lightly chilled at 12–13°C. Decant when young to allow the wine to fully express itself. Pairs beautifully with a cheese board or dishes featuring chicken or white fish, such as snapper.
Exceptional flowering conditions resulted in higher-than-expected yields, despite the challenges of spring frosts. A season of moderate temperatures and dry conditions allowed for extended hang time, developing ripe, concentrated flavours. The fruit is sourced entirely from the Martinborough region, grown on the renowned alluvial terrace. It comes from our estate vineyards alongside carefully selected growers. A mix of clones was individually whole bunch pressed, with the juice left to settle overnight before being transferred to French oak puncheons for fermentation using indigenous yeast. Following fermentation, the wine was aged in barrel for 11 months, with 16% new oak. The result is a wine that displays ripe stone fruit characters, supported by a flinty mineral backbone. Approachable in its youth, it will also reward careful cellaring over the coming years."
Reviews for the 2024 vintage below…
93/100 Susie Barrie MW & Peter Richards MW (UK), Susie & Peter New Zealand Wines of the Year 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"This is fresh, complex, self-assured Chardonnay from a well-known name in Wairarapa. Escarpment was established in the late 1990s, with Larry McKenna championing a distinctive style of Pinot Noir made on the Te Muna Road in Martinborough. Later dubbed, ‘The Prince of Pinot,’ McKenna oversaw the sale of Escarpment to Australian winery Torbreck in 2018/19, with winemaker Tim Bourne and viticulturist Rowan Hoskins currently overseeing production. This Chardonnay is sourced primarily from the alluvial terrace of home block on Te Muna Road – and 2024 is celebrated by the winery as, ‘one of the great Martinborough vintages’ given its warm dry summer, very low yields due to poor flowering, and high fruit quality. The grapes were whole bunch pressed, fermented in French oak puncheons (22% new) with ambient yeast, then aged for 11 months. Aromatically, there are ripe red apples, honeydew melon and roasted nuts. The palate shows lovely vibrant acidity, red apple, white peach and fresh custard flavours, and a lifted, moreish finish. A well-integrated, relatively restrained, very refreshing and appealing Chardonnay."
93/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, September 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"The 2024 Chardonnay is tightly coiled and citrusy, with lemon zest and green apple. In the mouth, the wine is creamy and silky, medium-bodied and super elegant. The length of flavour through the finish is long and lingering."
91/100 Andrew Neather, Decanter, March 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"A Chardonnay in a leaner style than many in New Zealand, with only partial malolactic fermentation and 22% new oak. Citrus, stony nose; fresh citrus fruit with taut acidity and a mineral backbone, lovely tension. Built to last."
