Martinborough Vineyard Home Block Martinborough Chardonnay 2021 $39 Re-tasting this two years after release, all I can say is that if you have this in your cellar, see it on a wine list or discover a bottle hidden away on a shop shelf then dive in!! Oh lord, today this wine is overdelivering in every … Read More
Chardonnay
Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay 2023
Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay 2023 $35-$39 From one of the most challenging vintages Hawke’s Bay has ever seen, where Cyclone Gabrielle roared through the region and devastated so many vineyards and dumped an unholy amount of rain just a week or two before harvest was due to begin. Fortunately Trinity’s Chardonnay grows in the … Read More
Matawhero Irwin Gisborne Chardonnay 2021
Matawhero Irwin Gisborne Chardonnay 2021 $60 Kirsten and Richard Searle choose only the absolute best quality fruit to go into this, their flagship Chardonnay, a wine named after Bill and Denis Irwin, the pioneering founders of Matawhero, men who put Gisborne fine wine on the international map. The 2021 Irwin roars with nectarine and grapefruit … Read More
Domain Road Defiance Central Otago Chardonnay 2021
Domain Road Defiance Central Otago Chardonnay 2021 $35 Graeme Crosbie grows three clones of Chardonnay in his Defiance Vineyard, 809, 1066 and 548, which are the three great clones used by the world-famous, French Grand Crus of Corton-Charlemagne in Burgundy. Central Otago chardonnay is rocking my socks right now and the Defiance is absolutely entering … Read More
Carrick Cairnmuir Terraces EBM Central Otago Organic Chardonnay 2022
Carrick Cairnmuir Terraces EBM Central Otago Organic Chardonnay 2022 $60 I mean you could go through your life happily knowing the Carrick EBM Chardonnay is so named for its ‘Extended Barrel Maturation’. However, I feel that name kind of doesn’t really give enough oomph to its actual fabulousness. So from here on in, I’m renaming … Read More
Alpha Domus The Batten Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2024
Alpha Domus The Batten Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2024 $44 I cannot stress this enough. The Batten 2024 is my Chardonnay of the year so far, and if you’re a Chardonnay fan or Chardonnay collector, you must beg, steal, borrow, barter, do whatever it takes to get your mits on this vintage as soon as you … Read More
Monowai Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2023
Monowai Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2023 $24 Gorgeously golden in the glass, winemaker and owner Emma Lowe has, from a horrific cyclone year, I might add, created a bold, peach and cashew-crammed style with refreshing acidity, buttered toast dusted with cinnamon characters and a finish that’s like a marathon being run in your mouth. Tropic-tastic and … Read More
Brightwater Vineyards Lord Rutherford Barrique Nelson Chardonnay 2023
Brightwater Vineyards Lord Rutherford Barrique Nelson Chardonnay 2023 $42 This rich, generously fruity, luxuriously juicy, creamy, and toasty chardonnay is stacked with nectarine niceness and sweetly concentrated, slightly smoky layers licked with almond and ripe yellow plum notes. It’s stunning stuff, and if you’re disciplined enough to leave a little in the bottle for tomorrow, … Read More
Jules Taylor Marlborough Chardonnay 2023
Jules Taylor Marlborough Chardonnay 2023 $25 I am LOVING. This. Chardonnay! Jules clearly had a blinder of a vintage in 2023 because this wine absolutely roars with ripe stonefruit and is prickled with pineapple, and luscious lemon and then crammed with creamy cashew and almond notes to flesh out a finish fanging with flavour. Juicy … Read More
Two Rivers Clos des Pierres Marlborough Chardonnay 2023
Two Rivers Clos des Pierres Marlborough Chardonnay 2023 $30-$35 Crafted from Mendoza, Clone 15 and B95 fruit grown in their Spring and Hawkesbridge vineyards that was wild fermented then aged for 8 months in French oak and given a full malolactic ferment, this chardonnay is a deliciously clean, youthful, saline-laced, and citrus stacked style. Elongated … Read More