Kumeu River
Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2024
Reviews
The Wine Advocate 90-92/100
The 2024 Estate Chardonnay is floral and tightly coiled, with a scratched lime backbone. It's not as complex as the Ray's Road tasted alongside, yet it's utterly composed and restrained. It is mineral and very good indeed. This was tasted as a tank sample prior to filtration and bottling. Tasting in verticals, like I did with the Brajkovich family at Kumeu River, reveals learnings that would otherwise be inaccessible. Firstly, I learned that Maté's looks like Maté's regardless of the season. It is the most distinct of the single vineyards, and it endures through all seasons. I learned that the Estate Chardonnay ages far better than I had given it credit for, and it seems that a good vintage of this wine will live for two decades instead of just one, as I had initially thought. I learned that the dominance of Coddington or Hunting Hill vineyard Chardonnays see-saws each season—for my palate—and while I find these two to be more seasonally variable, the rewards are high when they are on song. These are extraordinarily long-lived wines, and according to Paul Brajkovich, the most ideal drinking window opens at around eight years from harvest. There is very little correlation between warm and cool years being pinned to even or odd numbered vintages, and the weather here experiences everything from tropical storms, frost, dry spells and cyclones. 2025 has been a very good season: extraordinarily dry (little rainfall, low humidity) and quite cool—not a day over 28 degrees Celsius.
