Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has gorgeous minerality with precise layers of crushed stones, white peaches, dried lemons, cedar, chalk and pie crust. Creamy with a medium to full body and bright acidity. Flinty and chalky layers hold long.
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Wine Spectator
This mouthwatering version features intense lemon curd, lemon balm and grilled citrus notes at the core, with crisp, zingy acidity and accents of lemon blossoms, lemon verbena and oregano. A note of crunchy sea salt minerality lingers.
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Vinous
The Kidnappers Vineyard lies on the Hawke's Bay coast, making for a cooler site that's often picked a few weeks later than the warmer, inland Gimblett Gravels site. As a result, it is a completely different style. The 2021 Chardonnay Kidnappers Vineyard Hawke's Bay is all about precision and pizzazz, the bright, coastal site bringing vitality and tension. There's very little evidence of oak here in terms of flavor, allowing the pineapple, pear, honeydew melon and lemon brightness to shine. That said, the medium-bodied core offers weight and roundness, shaped by puncheon and only a small 10% in new barrel and left on lees. This is a wine that might not seem immediately impressive, but the raw material has the goods, and it's rather cleverly crafted, providing a finely structured account of itself.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.