[SOLD-OUT] Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2015

5 Stars - NZ Wine Guide

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“This wine ranks fourth in the company’s hierarchy of five Chardonnays, after three single-vineyard labels, but is still outstanding. Grown at Kumeu, in West Auckland, it is powerful, with rich, beautifully interwoven flavours and a seductively creamy texture, but also has good acid spine. The key to its quality lies in the vineyards, says winemaker Michael Brajkovich: ‘We manage to get the grapes very ripe.’ Grown in several blocks around Kumeu, hand-picked, fermented with indigenous yeasts and lees-aged (with weekly or twice-weekly lees-stirring) in Burgundy oak barriques (typically 25 per cent new), the wine normally undergoes a full, softening malolactic fermentation The 2015 vintage is a top buy. Open and expressive in its youth, it has fresh, ripe grapefruit, peach and spice flavours, gently seasoned with smoky, toasty oak, good complexity, a slightly minerally streak, lively acidity and impressive length. Drink to 2020.″

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Michael Cooper, NZ Wine Guide

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 "The 2015 Estate Chardonnay is more open-knit and less taut than the single vineyard wines, with an expressive nose of ripe nectarines, pink grapefruit and guava, plus underlying notes of baking bread and ginger. Medium-bodied, it offers richness and good depth in the mouth with a an approachable, refreshing backbone and great harmony."

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Lisa Perotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, December 2016, 92 Points

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“The quantity of Estate Chardonnay for 2015 is less than expected due to spring frost and poor flowering. Due to the low yield this wine has remarkable depth and intensity. The nose is immediately fragrant and peachy, the texture rich and lingering with a beautiful bracing acidity on the finish. The wine is delicious now but with this level of concentration and complexity it certainly will be very long-lived.”

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Kumeu River

 

Country:

New Zealand

Region:

NZ-(Other)

Variety:

Wine White - Chardonnay

Size:

750mL