Platinum Medal & 97/100 – Decanter World Wine Awards 2024
The Saint Clair Omaka Reserve Chardonnay is a perennial favourite here at Vino Fino so it was of great interest to see the 2022 taking out a prestigious Platinum Medal & 97/100 at the recently judged 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards. One of only two NZ wines to achieve this accolade.
There is nothing shy about the Omaka Reserve, Saint Clair's top Chardonnay. Selected from only the very best barrels, this is big and mouth-filling with plenty of weight on the palate. This has ripe stonefruit, smoky oak flavours in abundance. Unusually for a New Zealand Chardonnay, this is fermented in American Oak rather than French – this gives the wine more vanillin characters like many Californian Chardonnays. However, unlike the Californian Chardonnays, this also has a more complete savoury mineral character.
Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Perfumed aromas of charred oak, white peach and citrus with a hint of warm spice. Generous and rich with a creamy and textural mouthfeel. Flavours of white fleshy stonefruit and meringue combine with citrus notes and a hint of spice on the lingering finish.
The fruit was lightly whole bunch pressed and the juice fermented in American oak barrels, fourteen per cent of which were new, using selected yeast strains. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation, followed by nine months aging on yeast lees with regular stirring. Only the very best barrels were selected for the Omaka Reserve Chardonnay."
97/100 Judges' Comments, Decanter World Wine Awards 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"Brimming with fleshy white peach and sweet grapefruit with a spine-tingling crushed stone mineral frame which teases across the palate. Creamy and rounded with an appetising lemon curd acidity and a warming toasted bread finish."
Joelle Thomson, drinksbiz Magazine, April/May 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"This wine from Marlborough’s Omaka Valley expresses the structure and freshness that comes from the region’s Southern Valleys. Warm days and cool nights capture great structure, fresh acidity and ripe flavours, all of which are present and counted in this lovely wine."
4 Stars Cuisine Chardonnay Tasting, August 2023 (2022 Vintage)
"A fruit-forward style with lots of lifted citrus on the nose alongside delicate orange blossoms. The palate, too, is bright and light with peaches and pastry set against toasty smoke notes. Not overly complex but, as so often is the case, simplicity done well pleases the majority."