** FREIGHT FREE **
“some of New Zealand’s greatest Chardonnays, not to mention the world’s”
#76 in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2011
94-96/100: Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
91 POINTS: eRobertParker.com
The 2008 Estate Chardonnay is barrel fermented using natural yeasts and about 20% new French oak.100% goes through malo-lactic. It has pronounced passion fruit, ripe white peach, green mango and toast aromas with some cashew and oatmeal and a whiff of lemon curd. Very crisp, tight and medium bodied, the toast and exotic fruit flavors are concentrated, encased in a creamy texture and leading to a very long finish. This wine is still a little tight and will benefit from 6-12 months in bottle, drinking until 2016+ eRobertParker.com, #191, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW
Grapes were sourced from 6-7 different vineyards in the Kumeu area. The nose is gently fragrant displaying white peach, cashew and cream characters with a touch of chalky mineral notes. It's youthful yet complex. The palate is juicy and focused with creamy texture and bright acidity. A lovely harmony between pristine New World fruit with the classic Old World structure, and beautifully poised to develop gracefully. Sam Kim
There are few brothers that can successfully run a business together without going Cane and Abel on each other – but Paul (marketing), Michael (winemaking) and rarely seen Milan (vineyards) Brajkovich at Kumeu River make an amazing team. Mind you, having met their strong-willed mother Melba (managing director) it is clearly the boss, who’s been with the estate not to mention the workers from the beginning, keeping them in line. If you can taste history, duty and family pride in a glass, it’s there in the Kumeu River Chardonnays. Either that or it’s the years of continual improvement from trials, failures, successes and all the experience and determination that goes with sheer grind. Melba’s late husband, Mate (pronounced Matty), started this winery in the 1940s. “We planted a lot of different varieties,” Paul told me. “The Chardonnay came out as a star early-on.” Sixty odd years on and the brothers have progressed their father’s life’s work, now producing some of New Zealand’s greatest Chardonnays, not to mention the world’s.