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Buy OnlineSelected for the Fine Wines of New Zealand List
The Brajkovich family have carved out a reputation second to none for Chardonnay and every new release adds to that reputation.
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 (2022 Vintage)
"Hunting Hill is a vineyard that was first planted in 1982 and became a significant part of the original Kumeu River Chardonnay blend. Occupying the slope overlooking Maté’s Vineyard, it has always contributed lovely ripe and rich fruit to the Estate Chardonnay. Hunting Hill was replanted in 2000 and is now even better than before, giving beautifully ripe fruit with a distinctive, mealy minerality.
The incredible run of vintages since 2019 has continued with 2022. The conditions during harvest were suburb and 2022 produced a classic Hunting Hill. Very distinctive terroir driven typicity, with piercing lemon/lime fruit lift and florality on the nose, richness and volume in the mouth followed by lingering acidity and minerality on the finish. This is an absolute classic example of how great the Chardonnay grape can be: A beautifully powerful, yet elegant and complex wine with long term aging ability."
Michael Brajkovich MW, Winemaker notes (2022 Vintage)
"Completing a magnificent chain of four superb quality harvests. Across all our wines vintages 2019, 20, 21 and now 2022 showcase the very best our vineyards have to offer."
Rated Outstanding & 97/100 Cameron Douglas MS, July 2023 (2021 Vintage)
"Complex and alluring bouquet, layers of spice and mineral, core white fleshed fruits and lees mineral complexities. As the wine opens out in glass and warms a little, the mouthfeel, fruit and floral tones blossom and expand. Fantastic texture and length, persistent mouthfeel, a cashew nut butter note, barrel spice moments and synergies from the collection of attributes and inputs. rewrite CD. lengthy, taut and complex. A wine for the cellar still. Best from 2025 through 2035+."
94/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, July 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"Fragrant, aromatic chardonnay with slightly green tree fruit flavours, citrus/lime and a backbone of nicely integrated and pleasantly vibrant acidity that helps drive a lengthy finish. A smattering of nutty yeast lees adds extra interest."
Reviews for the 2021 vintage below…
96/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, June 2022 (2021 Vintage)
"A little struck match, hazelnut, grapefruit and white peach, a fair amount of sweet spice too. It’s dry, has lots of crunch and energy, distinctly flinty, hazelnut skin grip, grapefruit, ginger and lime, intense and tightly wound, maybe a little quinine and cucumber skin, and a long gently bitter finish of precision and super length. Outstanding. A great Chardonnay here."
5 Stars Michael Cooper (2021 Vintage)
"This outstanding single-vineyard wine – my favourite in the Kumeu River range – is grown on slopes above Mate's Vineyard, directly over the road from the winery at Kumeu (originally planted in 1982, the site was replanted in 2000). A notably elegant wine, in its youth it is generally less lush than its Coddington stablemate (above), but with good acidity and citrusy, complex flavours that build well across the palate. Bright, light lemon/green, the lovely 2021 vintage was hand-picked, fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak barriques and wood-aged for 11 months. Powerful and still very youthful, it has mouthfilling body, with deep, vigorous, peachy, spicy flavours, finely integrated oak, impressive complexity and a very harmonious, long finish. Already delicious, it should be at its best 2024+."
