Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of cooked apple, vanilla bean, light coconut and some pie crust follow through to a full body with a creamy texture and lots of fruit, nougat and cream in the aftertaste. Yet, it remains fresh and firm.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chardonnay is reductive in style, as the Greywacke Chardonnay is, but the fruit presents a concentrated front, a tour de force of flavor. This was the last vintage that the Chardonnay spent 18 months in oak; from the 2019 vintage onward, the wine is matured for 11 months, in line with the Wild Sauvignon Blanc (and the Pinot Noir). It has attractive curls of citrus rind, white pepper, clove and star anise, and it closes creamy, nutty and saline.
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Wine Spectator
A rich, complex white, with a fragrant smoky accent and a touch of listea oil to the core of fresh, vibrant Meyer lemon, pear and lime sorbet notes on a sleek frame.
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 icon and leading region of New Zealand's distinctive style of Sauvignon blanc, Marlborough has a unique terroir, making it ideal for high quality grape production (of many varieties). Despite some common generalizations, which could be fairly justified given that Marlborough is responsible for 90% of New Zealand's Sauvignon blanc production, the wines from this region are actually anything but homogenous. At the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, the vineyards of Marlborough benefit from well-draining, stony soils, a dry, sunny climate and wide temperature fluctuations between day and night, a phenomenon that supports a perfect balance between berry ripeness and acidity.
The region’s king variety, Sauvignon blanc, is beloved for its pungent, aromatic character with notes of exotic tropical fruit, freshly cut grass and green bell pepper along with a refreshing streak of stony minerality. These wines are made in a wide range of styles, and winemakers take advantage of various clones, vineyard sites, fermentation styles, lees-stirring and aging regimens to differentiate their bottlings, one from one another.
Also produced successfully here are fruit-forward Pinot noirs (especially where soils are clay-rich), elegant Riesling, Pinot gris and Gewürztraminer.