Wine Advocate 93 (2022)
 
The 2022 Estate Chardonnay is nutty and svelte, with white peach, pastry, apricot kernel, brine and even a hint of malt biscuit through the finish. The wine has breadth and girth to it; it's not at all compact, but it's tight in texture. So, all things being equal, it's an exciting Chardonnay. This is from six different sites in the Kumeu area, with wine aging on lees in 20% new oak (just about all François Frères) for approximately 11 months. Everything goes 100% malolactic fermentation, wild primary ferment, and malolactic fermentation is a mixture of inoculation and wild. From 2024, they will not be inoculating malolactic fermentation, as "the wild yeasts seem to be the most reliable," explains Michael Brajkovich. Lovely acid. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
 
At Kumeu River Wines our winemaking philosophy is simple. We endeavour to grow grapes of the highest standard and then treat them with respect when we turn them into wine. In this way the potential quality is maximised, and we are able to produce wines that are truly representative of our land. To this end our vineyards are trained on the “Lyre” trellis to optimise their exposure to light and therefore the ripeness of the grapes. Yields are kept low to improve the concentration of aromas and flavours in the grapes, and we harvest all of our grapes by hand. This allows us to remove faulty berries in the field so that our quality grapes may arrive at the winery in pristine condition. The white grapes are all whole-bunch pressed, which is time-consuming but gives us the best quality results. The reds are destemmed and crushed gently before being transferred to fermentation tanks. No yeasts are added, as we rely solely on the indigenous yeasts that are present in the vineyard to conduct our fermentations.