Gold Medal – Hawkes Bay Wine Awards 2021
Winery notes (2020 Vintage)
"In its youth this concentrated wine is pale in the glass and displays delicate and complex aromas of white fleshed stone fruit, flowers, biscuit and hazelnut. Intricate barrel fermentation influences meld with stone fruit and acidity on the palate, forming a refined marriage of style and length. Cellar this wine with confidence for up to 8 years from vintage."
5 Stars & 95/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review (2020 Vintage)
"Rich, ripe and creamy chardonnay peach, nectarine fruit flavours plus nutty barrel-fermentation characters and a suggestion of struck-flint. A moderately intense and sophisticated style from a top vintage."
5 Stars & 95/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, February 2022 (2020 Vintage)
"Gracefully elegant and stylish, showing rockmelon, peach, vanillin oak and oatmeal characters with a hint of lemon zest on the nose. The concentrated palate displays flowing texture and rounded mouthfeel, brilliantly structured by vibrant acidity, finishing impressively long and engaging. At its best: now to 2030."
5 Stars Michael Cooper (2020 Vintage)
"Showing obvious potential, the youthful, generous 2020 vintage is well worth cellaring to 2024+. Sturdy and concentrated, it is savoury and complex, with deep, vibrant peach and grapefruit flavours, finely integrated oak, balanced acidity and a long, rounded finish."
5 Stars & 93/100 NZ Wine Rater, June 2021 (2020 Vintage)
"An intense, modern, polished, 'reserve-style' wine that offers abundant peach, and nectarine fruit characters with smoky, charred barrel influence, and some funky sulfides adding complexity. While undeniably potent, the palate shows more freshness, and integration compared with the bouquet at this stage… the ripe peachy fruit flavours persist with a zesty lemon finish. Not quite integrated yet but has all the ingredients of a very smart wine."
Rated Excellent & 94/100 Cameron Douglas MS, February 2022 (2020 Vintage)
"A classic and alluring bouquet of ripe yellow fleshed stone fruits, a roasted brazil nut quality, baked apple and citrus peel. Moments of butterscotch and toasty barrel layer in complexity and familiarity. Full-bodied with a satin cream texture contrasted by acidity and new wood, fine-ish wood tannins and a lengthy finish. Delicious, classic and ready to enjoy from late 2022 through 2029+."
Reviews for the 2019 vintage below…
5 Stars & Top 5 Cuisine NZ Chardonnay Tasting, August 2021 (2019 Vintage)
"A rich, powerful style of chardonnay standing tall to make itself known in a crowded room. Grilled stonefruit and lovely integrated oak aromas on the nose follow through to a full, rich, rounded, and just simply delicious palate of pear and citrus pith. The oak on the palate is very deftly handled and it perfectly complements the fruit flavours present in the wine."
NZ Chardonnay Tasting, Dish.co.nz, May 2021 (2019 Vintage)
"Our judges’ notes were filled with expressions like “power”, “drive”, “boldness”, “texture”, “juiciness” and “tension”. This wine is a clean, powerfully structured style, laced with pineapple, popcorn and gunflint-struck goodness according to Rebecca. Yvonne admired its undercurrent of scorched peach and sleek acidity. Superb."