2024 Kumeu River Rays Road Pinot Noir, Hawkes Bay

The 2024 Ray's Road Pinot Noir is from the Ray's Road vineyard in Hawke's Bay, and the wine leads with notes of poached strawberry, star anise, clove, dark chocolate and forest floor. The palate is lean and spicy, with attractively composed tannins and good length through the finish. The notes of hung deli meat and gentle pastrami add an extra layer of complexity. The vineyard has limestone through it, and it lends a sense of energy and composure to the wine. Drink to 2039.

93 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2026

Deep and youthful colour, blackberry bouquet, fragrant and complex; it has sweet fruit succulence throughout. A delicious wine, the tannins and all components in balance. A turning point for this wine? Drink to 2034.

93 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, August 2026

Very bright and aromatic, with cherries, wild strawberries and rose hips over a savory core lifted by a touch of chocolate. The medium- to full-bodied palate is meaty and nervy, with a vivid dynamic flow of fruit. Very attractive and inviting. Drink or hold.

93 points Andrii Stetsiuk for James Suckling, August 2026

Kumeu River is regarded as one of New Zealand’s premier wine producers, having set the benchmark for Burgundian-inspired wines for decades.

Rays Road is their first vineyard outside of the western Auckland and a geographical and stylistic outlier compared to the rest of the portfolio. Acquired in the late-2017, the dry-farmed site located at Raukawa in Hawke’s Bay was originally a joint venture between Trinity Hill and Pascal Jolivet of Pouilly-Fumé fame. It is a north-facing limestone hillside at an elevation of 180–200 metres, a position that makes it markedly cooler than the majority of that region.

This vineyard is the of Kumeu River’s Village Pinot Noir, with a small section reserved for the Rays Road bottling. The recent plantings of clones 828 and 943 are contributing increasing quantities of lifted red-fruit aromas and more textural weight to this bright and fragrant wine. The fruit is hand-harvested, de-stemmed and crushed, then fermented with indigenous yeasts. The must was puched down several times a day during the fermentation for enhanced colour, flavour and structure, and the wine rested in French oak barrels for eleven months before final assessments and bottling.

Approachable now, this supple red will gain complexity as it matures over the next couple of years. It would thrive alongside dishes that embrace herbal and aromatic complexity. Try roasted paprika dusted quail with a fennel, orange and black olive salad or Dongpo pork with pickled mustard greens in steamed bao buns.