Kumeu River Melba 1998
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As with all of our Kumeu River wines this premium blended red wine was produced from grapes grown exclusively in the Kumeu region. 1998 was a stunning vintage in Kumeu, following a warm and dry summer, and with a much lower than normal yield. All of the red varieties produced wonderfully ripe fruit with intense, concentrated and persistent flavours. The blend of our best parcels of Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc gave us a wine which is quite exceptional and truly representative of our best individual vineyard sites. It is a wine that displays raciness, rusticity and power, tempered by elegance. It has concentration, complexity and length of flavour and is exactly this synergistic, blended style of wine that we aim to achieve. Rather than just concentrating on the single varieties and their respective aromas and flavours, we would rather combine integrate the complementary variety of characters of these three grapes so that the resultant integrated whole wine has a character and a quality that is greater than the sum of its parts.
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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.