2022 Pyramid Valley Springs Chardonnay, North Canterbury

Savoury characters are a feature of this wine, giving it a real sense of place. Intense flavours suggest good cellaring potential although the wine is already fairly tasty. Drink to 2032.

96 points Bob Campbell for The Real Review, August 2024

Planted in 1983, this is from one of the oldest Chardonnay vineyards in New Zealand. On the nose, this 2022 Springs Chardonnay leads with cheesecloth and brine, tatami mat, torched lemongrass, yuzu curd, blond tobacco, and white pepper. It’s a superb-looking wine, complex and undulating but tethered to an acidic track in the mouth, so the impression is one of rich composure and focus. Drink to 2035.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, December 2025

Mendoza clone chardonnay from the Springs Vineyard on Omihi clay soils, planted between 1982–1986; barrel fermented and aged on full lees for 12 months before racking to concrete tulip for a further 6 months. Light straw. Ripe white peach and nectarine fruits, soft spice, nougat, wild flowers and crushed rock. Plenty of fruit volume here, a sense of compression, too, before tightening on the mid-palate with a lightly pithy, textural tug and abundant minerally energy on the exit. Drink to 2032.

94 points Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, September 2024

Pretty combination of fresh fruit and hints of wood fermentation and aging. Full and layered, with a texture that shows structure and brightness. Long and very flavorful. Drink or hold. 

94 points James Suckling, March 2024

The 2022 Chardonnay Springs is an intense, concentrated and firm style with bracing acidity. Carefully handled (hand-harvested, whole-bunch pressed and wild-fermented), the wine is rich in flavor intensity and texture. At this young stage, its time in barrel is evident. Grilled nutty flavors and salty/flinty characters of reduction overlay the restrained white stone fruit. It's tight, compact, young and raw. Give it time to shake off its youth.

92 points Rebecca Gibb for Vinous, April 2024

The Mendoza clone fruit for this wine comes from the Springs vineyard planted between 1982-1986 on Omihi clay soils. Pyramid Valley has been leasing this vineyard since 2019, and it is farmed without synthetic chemicals or fertilizers.

The 2022 season in North Canterbury was marked by a cool and wet beginning that turned dry and sunny at harvest time. The handpicked grapes were foot stomped and whole bunch pressed, with the unsettled juice sent to oak for fermentation with indigenous yeasts. The wine was allowed malolactic fermentation and was aged for 12 months on full lees without sulphur before it was racked, blended and aged a further six months on fine lees in a concrete Tulipe. It was then bottled in September 2023 without fining or filtration.

About this producer

Pyramid Valley was established in 2000 by Mike and Claudia Elze Weersing and until 2017, the couple produced some of the world’s most exciting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from their tiny, high-density biodynamic sites. Today, the wines of this modern-day legend are made by the talented Huw Kinch and Pyramid Valley has become a part of Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estates, founded by Steve Smith of Craggy Range fame and Texan entrepreneur Brian Sheth.