PEGASUS BAY CHARDONNAY 2022

Pegasus Bay is consistently one of this country's top Chardonnays and given a few years in bottle will become spectacular.

Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Pale yellow in colour, the nose is complex and inviting, with concentrated citrus and bright tropical notes. Suggestions of grapefruit, melon, pineapple and vanilla, wrapped in a smoky mantle, interwoven with toasty barrel spice and savoury nuances of grilled mushroom. The mouthfeel is vigorous and vibrantly fruity, displaying excellent weight and a fleshy texture. A skewer of rousing acidity slices through the core of the wine, adding persistency and structure on the long, salivating finish.

We use traditional Burgundian winemaking methods. The fruit was hand-picked in stages during late March and early April, and then gently trodden underfoot to increase complexity and phenolic structure. The free-run, non-clarified juice was then put into large French oak barrels (puncheons), 70% of which were old to limit pickup of oak flavour. In these it underwent primary fermentation by the grapes indigenous yeasts. The wine was then matured in the puncheons on its natural deposits of yeast lees (sur lie). In the summer after harvest, it started to go through spontaneous secondary (malolactic) fermentation. It was regularly tasted during this time and the fermentation was stopped when the ideal balance was obtained. It had approximately 12 months maturation prior to bottling."

5 Stars & 95/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, March 2025 (2022 Vintage)
"Richly styled with gorgeous complexity, showing grilled pineapple, mango, grapefruit, roasted hazelnut, and flinty characters on the nose. The palate delivers terrific weight and fleshy texture, wonderfully supported by beautifully pitched acidity, finishing impressively long and expansive. At its best: now to 2034."

Rated Excellent & 94/100 Cameron Douglas MS, March 2025 (2022 Vintage)
"A fabulous wine with classic Pegasus Bay signatures of power and complexity, oak and and myriad fruit ideas. Aromas and flavours of stone and citrus fruits, especially peach and grapefruit, some melon and baked pineapple. Full-bodied on the palate with fruit, alcohol and tannins all contributing to mouthfeel and style. Delicious, flavourful and very moor-ish. Best drinking d=from day of purchase through 2030."

Reviews for the 2020 vintage below…

Joelle Thomson, drinksbiz Magazine, April/May 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"A great, complex, layered South Island Chardonnay; one of New Zealand’s best. This is a commanding wine with depth of flavour: flinty, zesty, full of citrus purity and smooth, ripe peachy notes captured in a full-bodied dry and lingeringly flavoursome wine."

5 Stars & 95/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, June 2023 (2020 Vintage)
"Bright, fresh chardonnay with grapefruit, oyster shell, sizzled butter, struck flint and spicy oak flavours. Impressive wine with power and purity together with a lengthy finish. Should develop well with bottle age."

5 Stars Michael Cooper (2020 Vintage)
Strapping yet delicate, richly flavoured yet subtle, this sophisticated North Canterbury wine is one of the country's best Chardonnays grown south of Marlborough. Muscular and taut, it typically offers a seamless array of fresh, crisp, citrusy, biscuity, complex flavours and great concentration and length. Estate-grown at Waipara, it is based on ungrafted, Mendoza-clone vines (over 30 years old), hand-picked and given lengthy oak aging (the 2020 vintage was fermented and lees-aged for a year in French oak puncheons, 30 per cent new). Still very youthful, the vigorous 2020 vintage is bright, light yellow/green, with a fragrant, slightly smoky bouquet. Tightly structured, it has intense, peachy, citrusy, mealy flavours, gently seasoned with biscuity oak, vibrant acidity and a sustained finish. Best drinking 2025+.

92+/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, October 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"Struck match, roast pumpkin, grapefruit, peach, sizzled sage in butter. There’s a lot of wheaty and cheesy flavour here, bright acidity, apricot jelly, a fair bit of flint and citrus zest, with a slightly greasy texture to close, but also, a lively lemon zest tang. A whole lot of Chardonnay, assertive and uncompromising. This one goes to eleven, which is OK by me, but gee, it’s every much an ‘experience’ wine."