Matahiwi Holly Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2018 $28.99
The ‘Holly’ is a wine that I eagerly anticipate every year. ‘Anticipate’ is a polite way of saying I basically stood outside the cellar door and yelled until they threw it at me and told me to leave them alone. It’s a wine that just gets better and better with every passing vintage, in my opinion anyway. A combination of Mendoza and Clone 15 fruit has created chardonnay with gorgeous peach and grapefruit flavours which merge with smooth, seductive crème caramel notes, rich toastiness, incredible stonefruit complexity, and boast a smooth, nutty, buttery length of flavour. Matahiwi means ‘raised ridge’ in Maori, after the landform on Paierua Road where the vineyard and winery are located. It’s got personality which erupts from the glass, alongside a rich, smoke-edged mid-palate that makes you go “mmmm”, it’s gorgeous with teriyaki salmon.
