Neck of the Woods Central Otago Chardonnay 2019 $25 
Created as a nod to the ‘poster boy of plants’ — the famous naturalist Sir Joseph Banks (had to make doubly sure I’d typed ‘naturalist’ and not ‘naturist,’ as that could have been a tad awkward) — this new vintage carries the Neck of the Woods trademark white nectarine, grapefruit and green apple characters that I’ve become a fan of. It’s lightly styled, with a crystalline, mineral backbone and a seam of creamy complexity, and when I learned it was crafted by the incredibly talented Jen Parr, it did not surprise me. Hand harvested Bannockburn fruit at play here, meaning it’s clean as a whistle and all about the fruit, yet there’s a layer of toastiness from a 9 month maturation period in mostly older French oak. Bright, vibrant, spicy, steely and citrus-forward, it’d roar with caesar salad.
