NEW ZEALAND WINE

It's no secret that great Chardonnay is made in beautiful rolling Moutere Hills in Nelson, which is home to the clay based vineyard where this wine comes from. Hand picked grapes were pressed into French oak cuves, where they went through spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts followed by malolactic fermentation and minimal filtration at bottling. This wine is fresh, dry, full bodied and creamy, balanced by nutty and citrus flavours.

Kumeu River Wines is New Zealand's top Chardonnay producer and best known globally. 

Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay is the flagship white from the winery. It is made from  grapes grown on six different vineyard sites in Kumeu and is consistently one of New Zealand's greatest dry, full bodied whites with outstanding freshness and complexity.

The winery is in the West Auckland village of Kumeu where it began life as San Marino Wines in 1944 when Croatian immigrant couple, Mick and Kat? Brajkovich, bought a small property with a vineyard on it. Their descendents now own and run Kumeu River Wines, which produces 250,000 bottles of wine annually from its owns 30 hectares of vineyards in Kumeu and from another 10 hectares, owned by local grape growers. 

One of the Wairarapa's most deliciously succulent and bone dry whites with fabulous flinty flavours. This Sauvignon Blanc benefits from complexity gained from a little time in old oak on lees. It's made with grapes grown on Martinborough's majestic Te Muna Valley where Big Sky Wines is situated on the windswept plains on alluvial soils. 

Jeremy Corban and Katherine Jacobs founded Big Sky Wines in the Te Muna Valley, Martinborough, in 2005. They have since expanded their small vineyard, which is predominantly planted in Pinot Noir and also has a little Sauvignon Blanc, which they give extra textural complexity to with a little time in old oak on lees.

Rays Road is Kumeu River’s new vineyard site in Hawkes Bay, planted on limestone soils at 180 metres above sea level, with a northerly aspect. The vineyard is dry farmed and this Chardonnay is made from 100% hand picked grapes, whole bunch pressed then fermented with wild yeasts in older French oak barrels. The result is a wine with  approachable and complex flavours, full of zesty citrus notes with a background minerality. On the palate, barrel maturation and malolactic fermentation has given this wine a richness and textural quality which is backed up by the wine’s great acidity, which provides it with good aging potential.

Kumeu River Wines began life as San Marino Wines in 1944 when Croatian immigrant couple, Mick and Katé Brajkovich, bought a small property with a vineyard on it. Their descendents now own and run Kumeu River Wines, which produces 250,000 bottles of wine annually from its owns 30 hectares of vineyards in Kumeu and from another 10 hectares, owned by local grape growers. 

Grapes grown at Te Awanga, south of Napier, give this impressive Syrah its bold and powerful with aromas of ripe blueberries, licorice and black pepper. It?s a velvety, smooth, silky and full bodied Syrah now and will age superbly for up to 10 years, potentially even longer.

About Clearview Estate

Clearview Estate is one of oldest, most well established wineries in Hawke's Bay and is situated on the Te Awanga Coast, south of Napier. It's a great place to visit for tastings at the cellar door as well as lunch in the dappled shade of the established courtyard area. The winery was founded by Tim Turvey, winemaker and co-owner. The current winemaker is the multi talented Matt Kirby.

Bianco is a lively, light bodied, dry, super interesting and flavoursome white wine; the sister to Rosso - our favourite chillable red right now. 

This Chardonnay is from Gibbston Valley's China Terrace vineyard located in the Bendigo subregion of Central Otago. The vineyard's altitude, combined with its complex accumulation of loess, clay and schist in the soil, gives  wines that are fresh, bright and complex.

Form Jules Taylor...

Chardonnay is one of the unsung heroes of Marlborough but also a wine that can divide the room! Jules? take on this variety is a far cry from the big buttery Chardonnay-bombs from the 1990s. Instead Jules prefers a wine with delicate freshness and attractive fruit flavours that express the vineyards in which they were grown. With only 10% new oak and a partial malolactic ferment, this elegant wine that will convert even the most die-hard chardonnay-basher!

The fruit for this wine comes from a small parcel in the Byrne vineyard, located in the Conder?s Bend area of Marlborough.

The vines are managed organically and are planted on gravels that would have once been a river bed. The stoney soils provide both drainage and heat retention which are essential for this cooler site.

The grapes were hand-picked, whole-cluster pressed and taken straight to French barriques without any chemical additions. It was fermented with indigenous yeast in the barrels, helping to add complexity and texture, without dominating the nose.

The wine was left on yeast lees for fifteen months, which were stirred regularly. This meant that the yeast added both savoury notes and also served to work as a natural fining agent. After time in barrique it was gently racked then bottled without fining.

Winemakers James and Annie Millton were the first in the country to produce a certified organic wine in 1984 and have since pioneered biodynamic grape growing and winemaking practices, along with retaining a strong loyalty to lesser known great classic grapes, such as Chardonnay, as well as lesser known ones (Chenin Blanc, but that's another story).

Opou Vineyard Chardonnay is an outstanding wine that foots it with the best.

A beautiful Blanc de Noir made entirely from lightly pressed Pinot Noir grapes and made by Clos Henri in Marlborough. The light pressing provides no colour to the wine but retains all the savoury, earthy, toasty flavours you'd hope for and expect from this great red grape variety. 

All grapes are hand picked grapes and the wine is aged on fine lees for 10 months, partially in stainless steel and partially in old oak. The wine was stored in the winery's cellar to allow a slow bottle fermentation and secondary aging on yeast lees for a minimum of 18 months. A few hundred bottles are disgorged at a time to release onto the market, leaving the remainder aging on its lees (sur lattes). 

Clos Henri began 22 years ago in Marlborough when the French Bourgeois family expanded their winemaking from the heart of Sancerre in the tiny village of Chavignol to Blenheim, in 2001. Now that their vines are 22 years of age , the family feels that they are only now starting to reflect and express the taste of the land. This family retains their land and winemaking in Chavignol where they have made wine for 11 generations.