Winemaker Notes
The single-vineyard Coddington wine is richly ripe in the yellow peach and apricot spectrum, with a background of toasted oak and caramelized hazelnut. Drink with pasta, chicken, and seafood.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a wine of real purity and elegance with fresh sliced peaches and lemons, as well as some light pastry notes. The palate is fine, unwaveringly long and pure with enlivening acidity through the finish. Stunning. Drink or hold
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Wine Enthusiast
New Zealand's Chardonnay expert has knocked it out of the park with its stellar 2020 vintage. Coddington shows intensely concentrated peach and apricot fruit accompanied by toast and vanilla with a mineral backbone. It's the richest in the stable, but is beautifully balanced with integrated oak, length and layers. An elegant and ageworthy wine that's a bargain compared with the price of Premier Cru Burgundy of similar ilk.
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Vinous
The 2020 Chardonnay Coddington is a mid-weight wine with youthful oak-derived clove and smoke characters. A citrus-like line of acidity pervades its supple core. The 2020 is concentrated and firm with real grip as well as ripeness. It's all presented in a round, seamless palate.
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Wine Spectator
Vibrant and expressive, with Bartlett pear, yellow apple and dried apricot flavors that show touches of honeycomb, finishing with a note of salted almond. Drink now
Founded in 1944 by Mick Brajkovich, wife Katé and son Maté, Kumeu River was one of the early pioneers in Auckland, New Zealand, that helped to establish its reputation as a world-class wine region. Still family owned and run, Kumeu River continues to pioneer new frontiers: winemaker Michael Brajkovich became New Zealand’s first member of the prestigious Institute of Masters of Wine, London, they have been testing and championing screw cap closures for close to 20 years and the winery has gone on to become the globally recognized benchmark for non-Burgundy produced Chardonnay. All Kumeu River wines are hand-harvested, whole bunch pressed and demonstrate exclusive use of indigenous yeast fermentation.
The Chardonnays of Kumeu River have gained a strong foothold within the international market, continuously and consistently receiving outstanding accolades. The winery is a globally recognized benchmark for age-worthy Chardonnay outside of Burgundy.
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.
Grape-growers in the local subregions of Clevedon, Matakana and Waiheke Island, focusing on vineyard techniques to maximize quality, are producing very fine Bordeaux Blends from local grapes. Auckland is also an industrial area where winemakers can produce quality wines based on sourced grapes from neighboring regions.