Description
Like so many new world wineries, Kumeu River, is an immigrant success story, hard work, and growth from generation to generation. The Brajkovich family’s story has grown in parallel to the growth of the New Zealand wine industry in general, established in the Kumeu region north of Auckland.
Third generation winemaker Michael Brajkovich ( New Zealand’s first MW) spent a vintage in Burgundy in the early 1980’ that changed the wineries trajectory and led them to place a singular focus on producing world-class Chardonnay.
This change saw them rename the winery Kumeu River (from San Marino Vineyards) and evolve to a more Burgundian style of winemaking. Since these changes, the wines of Kumeu River have been recognised as belonging to the pantheon of Chardonnay on a global scale. Here is a selection of their top Chardonnays.
- 2025 Kumeu River Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay
- 2025 Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay
- 2025 Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay
- 2025 Kumeu River Ray's Road Chardonnay
- 2025 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay
2025 Kumeu River Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay
The most revered wine in the Kumeu River range, and one of the most celebrated Chardonnays in the Southern Hemisphere. Maté Brajkovich planted this vineyard in 1990 on the very site where his family put their first vines in the ground in 1944. He died the following year, and the first grapes were harvested in 1993. The wine was released in 1994 to mark fifty years of the Brajkovich family at Kumeu River. That history runs through every bottle.
The 2025 harvest was exceptionally dry, with clean, concentrated fruit arriving across February and March. Handpicked and whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak, 100% through malo, eleven months in barrel. Mendoza clone vines producing tiny, intense hen-and-chicken berries, as they always have.
Right now it's composed and precise. Almond meal, white peach, lime, cut fennel and white flowers on the nose, with a subtle struck-match flicker. The palate is smooth and mealy with a honey gloss and a saline, flinty finish of excellent length. Acidity that's juicy and vigorous but calm. Rich and settled.
Drinkable now for the sheer precision of it, but the magic here happens after a decade in the cellar.
96 points
"A wine of richness and composure with a flinty exit. It’s all just so. A beautiful thing."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2025 Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay
The richest and most opulent of the Kumeu River single vineyard Chardonnays. Tim and Angela Coddington's fruit contributed to the Estate blend from 1998 until 2006, when Kumeu River decided the vineyard's plush, generous character was too distinctive to keep hidden. These vines are now over three decades old.
The 2025 harvest was exceptionally dry across Kumeu, with clean, concentrated fruit coming in through February and March. Handpicked and whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak, 100% through malo, eleven months on lees. Classic Kumeu River process, but the vineyard's personality comes through clearly.
Oyster shell, stone fruit, aniseed and honey nougat on the nose, then smooth and luxurious on the palate with a softness and creaminess that's Coddington's calling card. Fine acidity and a gentle chalkiness keep it balanced and long, with biscuit spice through the finish.
Delicious now, but give it four to six years and it'll hit another gear.
95 points
"This is a smooth and luxurious glass of Chardonnay with a softness and creaminess to it, but also has fine acidity, a gentle chalkiness to texture and excellent length... Lovely stuff."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2025 Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay
Hunting Hill spent years quietly contributing to the Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay blend before earning its own label, and it's easy to understand why the family didn't want to let it go. Planted on the slope above Maté's Vineyard in 1982, replanted in 2000, it has a distinctive mealy minerality that sets it apart within the Kumeu River range.
The 2025 season was exceptionally dry in Kumeu, with clean, healthy fruit arriving from early February through to mid-March. Handpicked and whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak, 100% through malo, eleven months on lees. Same process as always.
White nectarine, oatmeal and bran, aniseed, rock salt and a honey and white flower perfume on the nose. On the palate it's juicy and glossy but also precise, with peach, ripe lime and a faint nudge of tropical fruit carried by fine acidity and a light flinty grip. Long, silky, with a chalky tightness on the finish.
It's compelling now but built for the cellar. Stunning Chardonnay.
96 points
"It has fine acidity, a light flinty grip, and carries long and silky, with just a little chalkiness tightening up the finish. Superb."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2025 Kumeu River Ray's Road Chardonnay
Kumeu River's most mineral and saline Chardonnay, and it comes not from Kumeu at all. Ray's Road is their Hawke's Bay limestone hillside project, dry-farmed at 180 metres with a northerly aspect, producing a wine in a noticeably different register to the estate. More citrus-driven, more saline, with a fennel and flinty freshness that pushes straight through the palate.
The 2025 vintage was a remarkably dry season in Hawke's Bay. A brief burst of rain at the start of the table wine harvest was essentially all they got, with dry conditions carrying through to mid-March. The fruit came in clean and concentrated.
Handpicked and whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in older French oak, 100% through malo, eleven months in barrel. The approach is hands-off throughout, letting the limestone do what limestone does.
Peach, green melon, lime, cedar and fennel on the nose, then bright and juicy on the palate with a savoury, saline pull and a long, tangy finish. Bolder than the estate Chardonnays, but that's the point of this wine.
94 points
"It has some peachy flavour, but pulls savoury and saline, bright and juicy acidity, sourdough in the mix, with a tangy finish of excellent length. A very good wine"
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
2025 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay
The wine that built Kumeu River's reputation, and still the best argument for why they're New Zealand's most celebrated Chardonnay producer. Drawn from the finest parcels across six vineyard sites around Kumeu, it's the purest expression of what the family and the region can do together.
The winery describes it as among the best Estate Chardonnay they've made in the past ten years, with low yields and excellent ripening conditions combining to produce fruit of real concentration and precision. Handpicked and whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak, 100% through malo, eleven months in barrel.
Fragrant and toasty on the nose with white peach, grapefruit, smoked almond and a whisper of anise and honey. The palate is bright and lively, with almond creaminess and juicy citrus underpinned by the hallmark refreshing acidity that makes this wine so good at the table and in the cellar. Long, cool finish with a flinty, savoury edge.
Equally at home poured now as it is resting for five or six years. Pound for pound, one of the finest Chardonnay buys in the Southern Hemisphere.
95 points
"Gee, this is a very strong vintage for this wine. It’s a ripper."
- Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)
| Variety | Chardonnay |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Feature |
High Score |
| Size | 5 |
Kumeu River
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