Kumeu River, New Zealand’s most celebrated Chardonnay producer – comparing 2024 and 2014 vintages
Website: https://kumeuriver.co.nz/
Michael Brajkovic was in town to show the latest releases of Kumeu River’s Chardonnays, from the 2024 vintage. As a comparison, he brought along to the 2014s.
These are New Zealand’s most sought-after Chardonnays, and have a track record of ageing well. Until recently, they all came from vineyards in Kumeu, which is in West Auckland. It’s an area that’s important historically for New Zealand wine, where many of the famous names today started. But it’s not recognized as a place for high quality, with the exception of Kumeu River, whose Chardonnays are able to go head to head with the best in the world, as was evidenced by this tasting a few years back.
More recently, Kumeu River have headed to Hawke’s Bay. This is because the long-term future of the Auckland vineyards that they don’t own is uncertain. And Hawke’s Bay is emerging as potentially the top New Zealand region for Chardonnay.
They found a 25 hectare site in central Hawke’s Bay, called Rays Road. Michaels says that he’d heard about this vineyard before: it was planted by Trinity Hill in association with Pascal Jolivet in the early 2000s, mostly to Sauvignon Blanc, but also with some Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Brajkovics bought this in 2017. ‘Most was Sauvignon Blanc, but we’ve been working hard to correct this,’ says Michael. Now all the Sauvignon has been replaced with Chardonnay. The original Chardonnay plantings were clone 95, and they have added 548 and 15, and also a bit of Mendoza, which they planted with cuttings from Matés vineyard. They made sure the material was virus-free first by heat treatment.
The 25 hectare site now has 11 hectares of Chardonnay. ‘It’s a beautiful site, with different aspects,’ says Michael. Soils are limestone base with different levels of wind-blown loess. Their Rays Road Chardonnay is a selection of the best clone 548 and 15, fermented mainly in older oak, and just a few new barrels with a light, long toast. The fruit is transported from Hawke’s Bay to their winery for vinification. It’s a 7 hour drive, but this doesn’t affect quality.
The three single vineyard wines from Auckland are Matés, and then Coddington and Hunting Hill, which were both first made in 2006. Coddington is on a 5 year lease, with 2 years left. It has been bought by Chinese land bankers waiting for re-zoning so it can be built on. These are both clone 15 (also known as the Prosser clone, because it was sent to UC Davis by Dr Walter Clore who worked at IARES in Prosser, Washington State). Matés is planted with Mendoza clone (high-quality clone known for its variable berry size).
Winemaking at Kumeu River involves using slightly cloudy juice. They press, settle, rack of lees and then take reasonably cloudy juice to a larger tank, where they agitate it slowly as they fill the barrels. The idea is to get the solids as homogeneous as possible for fermentation. Many wineries fill barrels sequentially, so some are full of cloudier juice than others.
Back to Auckland. 2024 followed a very tricky 2023, which had two major rainfall events running up to vintage. They had 10 inches of rain which led to the cancellation of the Elton John concert at Mount Smart and some flooding in their cellar. The following week Cyclone Gabriel caused havoc, especially in Hawke’s Bay. Despite this Michael says the 2023s came through better than expected. In 2024, all was going well until 10 days of wet and cold weather during flowering, which cut yields by 40%. The good news is that this sort of reduction in crop causes the wines to have more concentration.
In Kumeu they expect 1200-1300 mm rain each year. In 2023 they had 1900 mm, and in 2024 900 mm. ‘This is the kind of variability we can get.’
Usually they get on day over 30 C each year, but they haven’t had a day this hot for 6 years. Overall, 2024 was a dry and cool-ish season, representing ideal conditions for Chardonnay.
Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2024 Auckland, New Zealand
Lively and bright and linear with some pineapple and pear notes, as well as green apple. Lively and intense, showing good concentration, with a rounded, refined, spice-laden finish. 94/100 (this retails around £22-£26 in the UK)
Kumeu River Rays Road Chardonnay 2024 Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Concentrated and quite fresh with a touch of apricot richness and some pineapple notes. Lovely intensity with a slight chalkiness and nice minerality. Shows depth but also freshness. Quite beautiful. 95/100 (this retails around £22-26 in the UK)
Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay 2024 Auckland, New Zealand
Bright, linear and lemony with some stone fruits, showing nice precision. Peach, apricot, some spicy notes and a taut acid line. Steely, with lemon the main focus but also showing some peachy richness. 96/100 (UK retail around £45)
Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2024 Auckland, New Zealand
Shows pear, aniseed and sake characters with a touch of pineapple. But the main theme here is stylish, elegant, refined citrus and pear fruit, with a sense of finesse. 96/100 (Uk retail around £45)
Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2024 Auckland, New Zealand
Mendoza clone. Complex, fresh and layered, showing pineapple, pear and a hint of apricot. Multidimensional with amazing precision. This has real texture, length and intensity, with potential for ageing. 96/100 (UK retail £55)
The 2014 vintage followed the 2013 frost-affected vintage, where they flew a helicopter but still lost half the crop. 2014 was a good ripening season with no frost.
Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay 2014 Auckland, New Zealand
This is still fresh and expressive with some richness to the pineapple and peach fruit, as well as a touch of honey. Juicy and showing nice depth, this should carry on developing slowly for a long time. 94/100
Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay 2014 Auckland, New Zealand
Nuanced, showing some richness with spicy detail as a foil to the peach and pear fruit. Subtle nuts and fine spices. Linear still, but with some richness, and just beginning to evolve. 95/100
Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2014 Auckland, New Zealand
Some depth and richness with honey, peach and fine spices, as well as lovely pear and citrus fruit. Concentrated and fine grained with good depth and a touch of pineapple in the mix too. Quite seamless and expressive, with a crystalline quality. Special. 97/100
Kumeu River Maté’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2014 Auckland, New Zealand
This is beautiful. Focused and refined with citrus, pear, pineapple and white peach. Nice acid line with honey, spice and toast, and a tapering finish. Expressive, mineral and refined. 97/100
UK agent: New Generation Wines
A video of a visit with Paul and Michael:
See also: an older article based on a visit, with extensive notes of previous vintages
