2024 Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay, Kumeu Auckland

The estate of this excellent producer introduces folk to its first tier, so it has to be very good. It certainly is, with its stone fruit and lemon accents, baking spices and lick of creamy lees with some Ginger Fluff cake and Danish pastry. There’s a light tug of phenolics, fine acidity; this is complete from start to finish. It’s a satisfying wine and, yes, a great introduction. Drink 2025–2031.

94 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, December 2025

Buttery croissant aromas, smoky snuffed candle, very complex and charming, the palate medium bodied with good weight and medium length, dry finish, impeccable balance. A remarkable wine at the price, detailed and engaging. Drink 2025–2033.

94 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, September 2025

Aromas of sliced apples and pears with some pie crust and croissant undertones. Medium-bodied with bright acidity and a long and tangy finish. Reserved and poised. Drink or hold. 

94 points James Suckling, June 2025

Is the 2024 Chardonnay Estate the best ever here? Quite possibly. It displays excellent concentration, especially considering this is "just" the estate wine. The 2024 is absolutely banging with intensity, tension and punch. There's a lot going on for your money. Expect a lightly infused brightness with scintillating citrus and integrated nutty layers and complexity. Plenty to unravel. Drink 2026–2034.

92 points Rebecca Gibb for Vinous, February 2026

The 2024 Estate Chardonnay is floral and tightly coiled, with a scratched lime backbone. It's not as complex as the Ray's Road tasted alongside, yet it's utterly composed and restrained. It is mineral and very good indeed. This was tasted as a tank sample prior to filtration and bottling. Drink 2025–2034.

90-92 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, June 2025

The Estate Chardonnay draws on six vineyard sites across the Kumeu region that the Brajkovich family has tended since the 1940s.

The 2024 vintage was small, with yields down 30% from difficult flowering, but the warm dry season that followed produced exceptional grapes of concentrated fruit without losing freshness. Hand harvested, whole bunch pressed and fermented entirely in French oak barrels using indigenous yeasts, 20% new, 11 months on lees before bottling.

Pale gold, the nose shows lemon, nectarine and apple with croissant, toasted nut and a thread of smoky mineral. The palate is medium-bodied and composed with bright citrus, creamy texture, fine acidity and a long, dry finish. Utterly composed and genuinely rewarding.

We're now firmly in Chardonnay territory, and food choices would sit on wide spectrum from grilled scallops and crab bisque, to a fine roast chicken with herbs, or lighter preparations of pork.

Drink now through 2032.