THE LANDING CHARDONNAY 2023

Gold Medal – New Zealand International Wine Show 2025

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"Vibrant aromas of citrus and stone fruits mingle with hints of toasted nuts and minerals. The palate reveals crisp stone fruit flavours and a refreshing acidity that lingers on the finish. This Chardonnay offers generous flavours supported by a well-structured palate with layered textures, making it an excellent match for snapper, saffron, shellfish, and other delicate dishes.

Indigenous fermentation is employed, with approximately 2/3 of the barrels allowing for malolactic fermentation. The wine matures in French oak barrels, including puncheons and barriques, with about 45% new oak sourced from Coopers, Chassin, François Frères, Damy, Mercurey, and Berger. After aging for 11 months in oak, the wine is blended in tank for an additional 6 months before being crossflow filtered and bottled."

94/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, September 2025 (2023 Vintage)
"A Chardonnay from handpicked fruit grown on the Purerua Peninsula in the Bay of Islands, although this was a tricky vintage. Winner of a Gold medal at the New Zealand International Wine Show in 2025. A bouquet of lemon, peach, pear and grapefruit with a touch of vanilla, tarragon and hazelnut adding richness. Dry and crisp but with a generous mouth-filling texture to the palate. Crystalline acidity gives length, with a linearity and freshness to contrast the broader edge of oak toast and blossoming spiciness. Finishes dry, with a good persistence of flavour. This should cellar well for a few years."

Reviews for previous vintages below…

Top 10 Metro Wine Awards 2025 (2022 Vintage)
"If you want a talking point, this is it. The vines for this wine are grown at The Landing resort, located near the tip of the Purerua Peninsula at the northern end of the Bay of Islands. While the region is visually stunning, viticulture in these latitudes presents its challenges. The vineyard is managed with exceptional attention to detail. And the wine itself is a standout—featuring notes of creaming soda, roasted fennel, roasted artichoke heart, ripe pear, and hazelnut. The palate is lovely and rounded, with texture and impressive length."

94/100 JamesSuckling.com (2022 Vintage)
"Plenty of apple, lemon, and raw bread dough aromas and flavours, yet it remains reserved and polished. Flavourful and vivid, with hints of vanilla and apple tart in the finish."

Rated Excellent & 93/100 Cameron Douglas MS (2022 Vintage)
"A youthful primary bouquet of grapefruit and fresh yellow stone fruits, fresh cashew nut and mild toasty wood highlights, there’s a hint of tropical fruit then apple and a clay soil quality. Equally youthful as the wine touches the palate, taut textures from acidity, some fine tannins and influences from barrel. Dry with plenty of weight and style, a wine that still needs time to find its groove, I am confident it will with a best drinking window of 2025 through 2030."

92/100 Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (2022 Vintage)
"The 2022 The Landing Chardonnay is funky and complex on the nose, with salted yellow peach, salted nuts, buttered popcorn, curry leaves and apricot Danish pastry. In the mouth, the wine has juicy acidity, but it’s a really weighty wine on the mid-palate. The vineyard is right on the coast, and the wine is salty and fresh; it has a breezy aspect. Voluminous. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap."

5 Stars & 95/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, March 2023 (2021 Vintage)
"Gracefully stylish and complex, the wine shows white flesh nectarine, grapefruit, cedar and nougat characters with a hint of flinty overtone. The elegantly expressed palate delivers brilliant focus and fine flow, superbly structured by bright acidity, finishing impressively long and refined. At its best: now to 2031."