2022 Kumeu River, Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay, Kumeu, New Zealand
Critics reviews
The 2022 Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay offers tension, power and an unrelenting sense of moving forward as if your palate has been put on a travelator. This is its 30th anniversary vintage. Currently it's closed and young with little aromatic generosity. There's nevertheless purity and a real sense of density. The richness is there but it's held within a brace of tension, ensuring precision and focus. After a couple of days, it loosens up a little so if you're thinking of opening it early, which I don't recommend, decanting may be your friend. I probably prefer the 2021 for its additional austerity but that may be me being subjective rather than objective.
Drink 2025 - 2035
Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous (September 2023)
This vineyard, planted in 1990, has just produced its 30th vintage. There is leafroll on the all-Mendoza clone for the moment but the hen-and-chicken size of berries adds concentration and a tad of astringency. This is a more sheltered site than the others so the grapes are riper and the new oak proportion is up to 30%. They want to keep the vineyard going despite the virus.
Pale straw. The richest of the line-up. But still very transparent and lively. Chewy finish. A wine in line with late 20th-century ideal of Chardonnay while Hunting Hill is closer to what is sought in the early 21st century. 13%.
Drink 2026 - 2036
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (September 2023)
The nose on this 2022 Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay leads with candied bananas, pineapple husk, white peach and a hint of lychee, and the edges of the aromatics are feathered with preserved citrus, brine, curry leaf and apple skins. In the mouth, the wine is powered by supercharged fruit; it is crystalline in its way, an attribute that I have long-since associated with the Chardonnays from Kumeu River.
The flavour is sapid and palate-staining, with just enough salt and savory spices in the fruit to make it super complex as well as powerful. It is precisely folded like origami, each crease in service of the overall shape. A wine that offers much and assumes nothing. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
Drink 2023 - 2027
Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (September 2023)
Gorgeous precise aromas of apples, white peaches, some minerals, flint and stone. Subtle mangoes, too. Full-bodied but so intense and driven with a salty undertone and a driving finish. Some white pepper at the end with citrus skin. Focused and intense. Great finish. Better after 2026 but already fantastic. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (November 2023)
Rich, slightly buttery chardonnay with nutty oak and yeast lees flavours together with a saline influence. Intense, appealing wine that is mellow and at the same time has a vibrant undercurrent. It would probably benefit from two to three years bottle age.
Bob Campbell, The Real Review (September 2023)
About this WINE
Kumeu River
Maté Brajkovich, a Dalmation by birth, arrived in New Zealand in 1938. In 1944 he and his parents purchased a property with a small vineyard and Kumeu River wines was born. However it was not until Michael, Mate's son, took over in 1982 that the true potential of the vineyards began to be fully realised.
Michael, the first New Zealander to become a Master of Wine, vastly improved the quality of the fruit though improved drainage systems, the growing of grass between the vine rows and by the introduction of the Lyre trellis system. Its two Chardonnays, the Kumeu River Chardonnay and the Matés Vineyard Chardonnay, are arguably the best in New Zealand and have been consecutively named in the Top one hundred Wines of the world by the Wine Spectator.
Auckland
At the head of North Island, the Auckland region brims with a disproportionate amount of wineries (17 percent of New Zealand's total), even though it is planted with just two percent of the country's vines.
Despite being on the doorstep of an affluent Auckland, the fairly humid, near-tropical climate and fertile soils makes fine wine little more than a pipe dream – the notable exception being Kumeu River Wines, where the tireless work of the Brajkovich family in taming the vines while honing their winemaking has resulted in the country's finest Chardonnays.
Chardonnay
Chardonnay is often seen as the king of white wine grapes and one of the most widely planted in the world It is suited to a wide variety of soils, though it excels in soils with a high limestone content as found in Champagne, Chablis, and the Côte D`Or.
Burgundy is Chardonnay's spiritual home and the best White Burgundies are dry, rich, honeyed wines with marvellous poise, elegance and balance. They are unquestionably the finest dry white wines in the world. Chardonnay plays a crucial role in the Champagne blend, providing structure and finesse, and is the sole grape in Blanc de Blancs.
It is quantitatively important in California and Australia, is widely planted in Chile and South Africa, and is the second most widely planted grape in New Zealand. In warm climates Chardonnay has a tendency to develop very high sugar levels during the final stages of ripening and this can occur at the expense of acidity. Late picking is a common problem and can result in blowsy and flabby wines that lack structure and definition.
Recently in the New World, we have seen a move towards more elegant, better- balanced and less oak-driven Chardonnays, and this is to be welcomed.
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Description
The 2022 Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay offers tension, power and an unrelenting sense of moving forward as if your palate has been put on a travelator. This is its 30th anniversary vintage. Currently it's closed and young with little aromatic generosity. There's nevertheless purity and a real sense of density. The richness is there but it's held within a brace of tension, ensuring precision and focus. After a couple of days, it loosens up a little so if you're thinking of opening it early, which I don't recommend, decanting may be your friend. I probably prefer the 2021 for its additional austerity but that may be me being subjective rather than objective.
Drink 2025 - 2035
Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous (September 2023)
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