One of the finest chardonnays in the country

Add this affordable but effortlessly balanced Kiwi chardonnay to your list of great wines, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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published
in Features

2007 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay, Kumeu, North Island, New Zealand (£16.40-£17.99, Tanners, 01743-234500; The Wine Society, 01438-741177; Bennetts, 01608-661409; Ten Acre, 01992-618017; Farr Vintners, 020-7821 2000).

I tasted a brilliant horizontal/vertical selection of Kumeu River's incredible Chardonnays the other day. The 2006, 2007 and 2008 of all four cuves Estate, Coddington, Hunting Hill and Mat's made this my most complete look at this pioneering winery.

I have been following it since its first release in the late eighties. The Brajkovich family makes the finest chardonnays in the country. What is so exciting about this news is that the wines are eminently affordable (unlike top flight Burgundy), they age beautifully (think ultra-premium Chablis-style lifespan) and they all seem effortlessly balanced and ethereal (unlike the vast majority of the world's top-end versions of this grape).

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A number of canny wine merchants bring these must-have wines into the country and my pick of them is noted above. There is also a pretty diverse spread of cuves and vintages out there so I would encourage you to try to buy across as wide a selection as you can these are incredible wines. One sip is all that is needed to add Kumeu to your list of greats.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year.

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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