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KUMEU RIVER RAYS ROAD CHARDONNAY 2022

94 Points
5 Stars Michael Cooper
5 Stars
  • Closure: Screw Cap
  • Unit: Each
  • Volume: 750ml
  • Alcohol: 13.5%
  • Grape: 100% Chardonnay

$39.99 elsewhere $43.99

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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)
"Rays Road is Kumeu River’s new vineyard site in Hawkes Bay. This limestone hillside is at 180 m altitude, with a northerly aspect. It is dry-farmed to yield high quality grapes for wine under the Rays Road name for our Kumeu River label.  This Chardonnay was hand-harvested, whole bunch pressed and fermented with wild yeast in older French Oak barrels to give a wine that is zesty and fragrant, with mineral complexity that is very true to its site.

With the 2022 vintage Rays Road produced very clean and ripe fruit from this unique site. We are now receiving significant quantities of Chardonnay from the new plantings, based on Clones 15 and 548. These allow for a much deeper and more nuanced expression of the Chardonnay variety than the existing Clone 95 plantings, but still with the zesty minerality on the palate. The result is an exciting Rays Road Chardonnay showing white flowers and lemon on the nose, with rich texture and vibrant acidity on the palate. This wine is a terrific addition to the Kumeu River range and we are now seeing the quality advance that we were expecting from this site."


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."


94/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, July 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"Bright, fresh, elegant wine with oyster shell, grapefruit/citrus, green apple and spicy oak flavours with a vibrant backbone of mouth-watering acidity and peppery phenolics. High energy wine that is drinking well upon release."


Rated Excellent & 93/100 Cameron Douglas MS, August 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"There is marked quality and purity in the bouquet of this wine since I tasted the previous 2021 vintage. There's a finesse and purity of fruit with a gentle sweetness and complexity from barrel then aromas and flavours of stone clay soil suggestions. White fleshed stone fruits and red apple flesh, some grapefruit and (no new barrel) lemon highlights. Satin silk texture, med+ acid line delicious."


Reviews for previous vintages below…


5 Stars Michael Cooper (2021 Vintage)
"Estate-grown in Hawke's Bay, the distinctive 2021 vintage, from an elevated (180 metres above sea level), north-facing site, was hand-picked and fermented with indigenous yeasts in seasoned French oak barrels. It has a distinctly cool-climate feel (described by Kumeu River as 'mineral' and 'zesty'). Bright, light lemon/green, it is a refined wine, fresh and vibrant, with intense, citrusy flavours, lively acidity, restrained oak and a vigorous, tightly structured finish. Best drinking 2024+."


94/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, June 2022 (2021 Vintage)
"Nectarine, nougat, a little cinnamon and freshly cut fennel. It’s smooth and flavoursome, oatmeal and almond, juicy grapefruit acidity, a lightly chalky texture, and fruity but tight finish of excellent length. Delightful."


95/100 James Suckling (2020 Vintage)
"This is a fuller style from Hawke’s Bay and quite different from the rest of the Kumeu range of chardonnays. Bold, ripe peaches dominate the nose and palate. The texture is impressively silky and smooth. Very fleshy and complete. Impressive."


93/100 Thomas Parker MW (2020 Vintage)
"Bright, pale yellow colour in the glass. This has a fresh, cool vibrancy on the nose but this year there is a little more richness and ripeness of fruit, bringing a lightly peachy character against a fresh citrus core. The palate follows, with real salinity and a cool note of green fruit before creamy pears and a hint of something riper come through. Silky and fine, this is long and subtle, all about the chalky, textural depth it possesses."


17/20 JancisRobinson.com (2020 Vintage)
"Neat and well integrated, quite restrained. And already very accessible though with light, fine tannins and quite opulent fruit on the front palate. Sprightly. Lemon-pastille flavour. Very long. Beautifully made."

We provide a door to door delivery service nationwide. Delivery charges are calculated on a 12 bottle case or part there of.

Delivery charges are calculated during the checkout process based off your address post code. Please ensure you choose the correct post code. We will advise you if you have chosen the incorrect post code.

You may also choose to 'pick up' your order from our wine shop at 188 Durham Street South, Christchurch.

For further details on prices and delivery options please go to the Delivery & Returns section of our site.

If for any reason you are not entirely happy with your order or you suspect that it may be affected by a quality issue, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will remedy the problem straight away. Contact us on (03) 3655134.

Note, for orders of 1 - 2 bottles we charge an additional $5 for packaging. To ensure the safety of the bottles we use specially designed posting boxes.

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