Winemaker Notes
The 2019 vintage was exceptional and produced sensational Chardonnay across all vineyards. Hunting Hill is very distinctive in its terroir typicity, with piercing lemon/lime fruit lift and florality on the nose, richness and volume in the mouth followed by lingering acidity and minerality on the finish. This is an absolute classic example of how great the Chardonnay grape can be: A beautifully powerful, yet elegant and complex wine with long term aging ability.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Hunting Hill Chardonnay is weighted solely on the back palate and is powerful, tightly structured and salty. This is a wine of magnitude, complexity and textural width, and it shows even more promise for the future than the Coddington, which was looking mouthwateringly full of potential. This is a ripper.
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Vinous
The 2019 Chardonnay Hunting Hill is a compact, sappy style that really drives home. It's a wine that knows where it's going with its lime bitters, nectarine, restraint, balance and line. A youthful wine that you could enjoy now for its drive and complexity but will benefit from further bottle age and develop slowly and gracefully over the coming decade and perhaps more.
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James Suckling
This has attractively creamy aromas with white peach and vanilla, as well as sliced mango and honey. The palate serves up fleshy and mouth-filling peach and mango flavors that wrap together so well on the finish. Love the fruit purity here. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Butterscotch, sweet cream and lemon meringue details are succulent and pure, with hints of nutmeg, tangerine, peach and citrus notes that are harmonious and juicy on the finish.
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.