Kumeu River - Chardonnay Mate's Vineyard 2022 (750ml)

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Producer	Kumeu River
Country	New Zealand
Region	Auckland
Subregion	Kumeu
Varietal	Chardonnay
Vintage	2022
Sku	38561
Size	750ml

  

WA

96

JR

17

V

95

The nose on this 2022 Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay leads with candied bananas, pineapple husk, white peach and a hint of lychee, and the edges of the aromatics are feathered with preserved citrus, brine, curry leaf and apple skins. In the mouth, the wine is powered by supercharged fruit; it is crystalline in its way, an attribute that I have long-since associated with the Chardonnays from Kumeu River. The flavor is sapid and palate-staining, with just enough salt and savory spices in the fruit to make it super complex as well as powerful. It is precisely folded like origami, each crease in service of the overall shape.* A wine that offers much and assumes nothing. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.  Erin Larkin

The 2022 Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay offers tension, power and an unrelenting sense of moving forward as if your palate has been put on a travelator. This is its 30th anniversary vintage. Currently it's closed and young with little aromatic generosity. There's nevertheless purity and a real sense of density. The richness is there but it's held within a brace of tension, ensuring precision and focus. After a couple of days, it loosens up a little so if you're thinking of opening it early, which I don't recommend, decanting may be your friend. I probably prefer the 2021 for its additional austerity but that may be me being subjective rather than objective.  Rebecca Gibb

This vineyard, planted in 1990, has just produced its 30th vintage. There is leafroll on the all-Mendoza clone for the moment but the hen-and-chicken size of berries adds concentration and a tad of astringency. This is a more sheltered site than the others so the grapes are riper and the new oak proportion is up to 30%. They want to keep the vineyard going despite the virus.
Pale straw. The richest of the line-up. But still very transparent and lively. Chewy finish. A wine in line with late 20th-century ideal of Chardonnay while Hunting Hill is closer to what is sought in the early 21st century.