Winemaker Notes
This year's Village Chardonnay features very attractive lifted fruit aromas, along with a touch of nuttiness: the hint of hazelnut that is so typical of Chardonnay. The palate also shows a nice peachy ripeness along with a crisp flinty character that gives the wine a refreshing cleansing quality. This wine is perfect to drink with fish and shellfish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Kumeu River's 2008 Village Chardonnay is a real cracker at a bargain price. Usually coming from about 8 different sites, around a third of the production is barrel fermented while the other 2/3s are tank fermented. This wine gives intense pineapple and apricot aromas with some cream and toast plus a touch of meal. Crisp, medium bodied, there’s good concentration and texture here with a long finish. Delicious now, it should drink nicely through 2014.
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Wine Enthusiast
Kumeu’s entry-level Chardonnay shows less concentrated fruit and less oak influence than its big siblings, but nonetheless displays ample pineapple and pear fruit in a full-bodied format. The oak is barely noticeable, making the wine straightforward and easy to drink.
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.